Pioneers of Rugby in Wellington 109: Don McIntosh

This week’s history profile is Don McIntosh, this one originally scheduled to be published in a couple of weeks. But the sad news just crossed our desk that he has passed away in Levin aged 94, so bringing it forward to honour him here in our way with an article and profile. Rest in peace Don McIntosh, a giant of a rugby player for Petone, Wellington and the All Blacks in the 1950s and early 1960s.

Flanker Don McIntosh was a leading player both in Wellington club rugby and New Zealand domestic rugby in the 1950s and one of the most decorated players of all time in Wellington rugby.

As well as captaining Petone to Jubilee Cup titles in 1956, 1957 and 1959 and once more in 1961, McIntosh captained the Wellington representative team for several years and in some famous games, culminating in the match against the British Lions in his final year in 1959.

McIntosh played 118 first-class matches for Wellington, a record at the time, and since only bettered by six players headed by Graham Williams (174 matches).

Donald Neil McIntosh was born in Lower Hutt on 1 April 1931. He grew in the Wairarapa and attended Featherston District High School.

Returning to the Hutt Valley, he joined Petone and was a senior second division representative in 1950, and became a Wellington representative in 1951 aged 20.

For Petone, he scored the match-clinching try for Petone to beat keen rivals University 22-3 that carried the side to the 1956 Jubilee Cup title.

For long periods, the 1957 club season hung in the balance, with five teams in the hunt at one stage. Petone pulled through to win comfortably by season’s end, finishing on 24 competition points and University, Oriental and Marist all on 18.

In 1959 Petone won the Jubilee Cup when they beat University 12-5 at Petone after leading 9-5 at halftime.

McIntosh’s fourth and last Jubilee Cup win was in 1961. A last-gasp 13-12 win over Onslow at the end of July was followed by a 19-17 win over University that clinched the title.

Weeks before captaining Petone to win the first of three Jubilee Cups of the decade in 1956, the Rugby Weekly carried an article titled ‘The Cheers Echoed Down Udy Street’.

This article on 14 July 1956 was after he had been selected in the All Blacks for the first time and including the following:

“He has been knocking at the door of All  Black honours since 1953. He appeared to have every qualification, brilliant jumping in line-outs, hard rucking, intelligent backing up, quite a fair amount of pace, and the ability to put every ounce of his 14.12 [around 94kg] into the game with an unquenchable spirit until the final whistle.”

His selection to play the Springboks for the first test came after he had been at the forefront of Wellington’s forwards that had gone down 6-8 to the South Africans in their early tour match.

He was dropped as part of a number of changes after the second test loss, but was selected again for the tour of Australia in the following season and appeared in both international. He played in All Black trials for two more years but did not gain New Zealand honours again.

He played four tests and 13 matches overall for the All Blacks 1956-57. He is All Black number 575.

For Wellington, McIntosh became the province’s vice-captain, under the captaincy of Athletic halfback Vince Bevan, in 1954 and captain in 1955.

That same year he got married and moved to Titahi Bay.

He led Wellington to their 8-0 win over Canterbury to win the Ranfurly Shield in 1956. He then led Wellington to a 9-6 defence against Auckland to lock it away for the off-season. In 1957 Wellington defended it three more times before losing it to Otago.

He was Wellington’s captain against the 1959 British Lions, which the tourists won 12-6.

Having brought up his century of appearances, he played his last season in representative colours in 1960, but he kept playing for Petone over the next two seasons – winning his fourth Jubilee Cup with them in 1961.

He played another two first-class matches in 1961 for the Centurions team, bringing his career match tally to 158.

McIntosh retired at the latter stages of the 1962 season because of injury, which he sustained against Marist on Petone’s Queen’s Birthday clash whilst fielding a kick-off.

A Rugby Weekly article announcing his retirement at the time continued the story:

“McIntosh planned to hang up his boots two years ago, when 29, but he was prevailed on to turn out for Petone last winter when Petone suffered injuries. He was in two minds about playing this year, but a change in occupation resulted in such a beneficial change in his state of health that felt he could easily play for another season.”

“Few players have been more honest toilers than Don McIntosh. At the age of 19 he came into the Petone Senior team. He played in New Zealand trials without the background of a match for Wellington, and though not successful then in getting a silver fern, he ultimately did.”

Leaving the playing ranks, McIntosh coached at Petone 1963-65 and Featherston 1967-70 and again 1976-78. He became a Wairarapa farmer.

In 1968, he refereed a first-class match, even though he wasn’t a referee, stepping in at the last minute and controlling the fixture between Wairarapa and East Coast.

McIntosh passed away on 17 July 2025 in Levin, aged 94.

REFERENCES

• All Blacks Player Profile Don McIntosh – by Lindsay Knight.
• Akers, Clive. New Zealand Rugby Register 1870-2015. New Zealand Rugby Museum, 2016.
• Griffin, Don and Gallagher, Peter. True blue” : the first 100 years of the Petone Rugby Football Club Incorporated, 1885-1985 [Petone, N.Z. : The Club, 1985]
• Rugby Weekly – various editions 1950s, 1960s. 14 July 1956 and 28 July 1962 editions cited in this article.