Dave Currie, 65, first played rugby when he was 5.

When Dave Currie was punched in the face in a rugby game earlier this year, he could not help but smile.

After all, the 65-year-old had it coming.

"I had given the guy's father a whack 10 years earlier".

The man known as Curriz is accustomed to playing against multiple generations.

He has played rugby for 60 years and is a legend at Palmerston North's Old Boys-Marist.

While the game and his body have changed over the years, he said he has never altered the way he plays.

"I am too old to change," he said. "I am always being told that I do not keep up with the laws."

Currie is in his element in the dark depths of rucks, mauls and scrums - a key reason he has no plans to hang up his boots yet.

While he was never a star on the field, he managed a handful of games for the Old Boys-Marist senior side and represented Manawatu in rugby league.

But the ultra-durable frontrower was a fixture in the club's B team until his late 30s when he transferred to the president's grade side he still plays for.

He remembered when he first picked up a rugby ball as a 5-year-old at Our Lady of Lourdes School.

"The nuns used to coach us; they would roll up their dresses," he said.

He continued to play rugby through his schooling years and credited the sport for keeping him out of trouble in his teenage years.

"I started to get in a bit of shit when I was 14 or 15 and if I was not going back to the rugby club every week, I could have gone the other way," he said.

But that did not mean he did not get up to mischief.

His exploits on the rugby field pale in comparison to the laundry list of cheeky stories he has from off it.

From crashing a wedding to his yearly Christmas phone calls to Colin Meads, Ian Kirkpatrick and Brian Lochore, Curriz admitted he had "done some crazy things over the years".

"I did things that I wouldn't dream of doing now, but I shouldn't say that because then I am likely to do them."

It was the social side of the rugby club that has kept him playing.

He received the prestigious Freedom of the Marist Sports Club award last month, an award that can only be held by one living member at a time.

In a rare moment, the cheeky frontrower was left speechless as he comprehended just what the award meant.

"I was very proud," he said. "They have only given it out once before."

He has had his fair share of injuries over his career including back problems that forced him to have back surgery.

But his worst injury came off the rugby field.

In 1987, he was run over by a road sweeper in Palmerston North and broke his pelvis.

"I was in hospital for a long time," he said. "I lost all the skin off my back and legs where the brushes hit me."

The crash forced him to miss most of the season with injury, but he was back on the field the next year.

Currie put off knee surgery earlier this year so it didn't interfere with his season, but they were starting to cause him trouble again.

He was confident they would be right for the kickoff of the 2016 rugby season.