He starts talking about All Black trials, Morrie Dixon cutting inside him and playing on Carisbrook.
Then a voice comes across the room.
''You haven't answered the question.''
That is his partner in arms - wife Margaret.
Tuppy then plays the straight bat.
''They were both hard-earned weren't they? I had to see off a lot of suitors to get her. You can't compare them, really. They are different things.''
The couple, both 84, celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary today, and are planning a small family gathering at the weekend.
Tuppy played one test for the All Blacks in 1959, and was the first player to rack up 100 games for Otago.
He married Margaret (nee Potter) in 1954 in the Gore Presbyterian Church.
The couple met at Gore High School in the fifth form but spent time apart when Tuppy came to Dunedin to start teaching training.
Margaret stayed back in Gore. In those days, women had to wait to go to training college.
Tuppy took a year off training college to tend to a family farm in Pukerau and at the end of that year the couple were married.
''I had to work on the farm to get enough money so we could get married.''
The couple came to Dunedin and both went into teaching careers.
Tuppy (who got the name from his dad, also called Ernest - ''He called me a little wee baby, a tuppence, and it stuck'') taught at John McGlashan College for a long period.
Margaret, after having three children, also ended up at John McGlashan, first as a teacher and then later working in the school library.
She loved watching her husband play rugby and meeting all the players.
''People used to say to me that young married men should not be playing sport.
''But I did not believe you should give up things that you love doing.
''There is nothing selfish about that,'' Margaret saidTuppy said he would not had played 100 games for Otago - he eventually played 101 games - without the support of his wife.
So what has kept them together all this time? What kept Margaret going while Tuppy was away on rugby trips?''Love,'' Margaret said.
''You love somebody more and more as you grow older. You hear people talking about working on your marriage. But we did not do much work.
''We just went along . . . We do not disagree much. We've been very fortunate, really.''
