Curtis was born in Salisbury, the capital city of Rhodesia, now known as Zimbabwe. He made his debut for Ireland against Wales in the 1991 Five Nations. He represented Ireland at the World Cup later that year, scoring a try in the pool stage against his country of birth and participating in their losing quarter-final team. In all he was capped for Ireland on 13 occasions and scored his only other points courtesy of a drop goal in an international friendly against Namibia.