Beloved stalwart of Otago rugby remembered

Otago Daily Times

27-05-2025

Tuppy Diack. File photo: Peter McIntosh
One of the best rugby players to come out of Gore has died.
Tuppy Diack died earlier this month in Dunedin, aged 94.
Diack had only a brief stint in the All Blacks, just the second test, playing on the wing, against the touring British Lions at Athletic Park in 1959.
Diack, who was the first person to play 100 games for Otago, was born in Southland and attended Gore High School where he was head boy in the late-1940s.
He played in the first XV at the school for the last three years of his education.
Though he was picked for the first test against the Lions in 1959, an ankle injury led to his withdrawal, but he did enough.
He was the son of Charlie Diack, a solid provincial player of the 1920s and 1930s.
But apart from a period in 1954, when he played six games for Southland, including a Ranfurly Shield challenge against Canterbury, all of Diack's rugby was with Otago.
He played 101 matches for Otago between 1951 and 1964.
He was a member of the Otago side which lifted the Ranfurly Shield in 1957 and the 1959 win over the Lions.
Diack was a long time teacher at John McGlashan College in Dunedin.
In 2005, he had the honour of being the Otago Rugby Football Union president, having already been made a life member of the union, a prestigious honour.
He was a mainstay at many practices for both the Highlanders and Otago over the years.
Diack played top rugby until 1964, when he retired at age 32.
He scored 53 tries and 706 points in 146 first class games.