Magpies rugby captain Ash Dixon has been rewarded for his perseverance with captaincy of the Maori All Blacks for three matches in the US and the UK.
Dixon, 28, has been on national selectors' radar since 2006 when at Christchurch Boys' High School he was in a New Zealand SecondarySchools side alongside Hawke's Bay players Zac Guildford and Daniel Kirkpatrick. Now a star All Black, Israel Dagg was unavailable for that team because of injury.
Having moved to Hawke's Bay, Dixon joined Guildford and Kirkpatrick as New Zealand won the Under-20 World Cup in 2008.
He has played 74 matches for the Magpies, in a career which has seen him also play 50 matches in Super Rugby and 22 interprovincial cup matches for Auckland. He has also played five matches for the Maori All Blacks, starting as a late replacement for a tour to Canada and the US in 2013.
Descendant from Waikato iwi Ngati Tahinga, hooker Dixon has Magpies teammates Ihaia West, Brad Weber and Ben May in the squad which leaves on Sunday to play the USA in Chicago on November 4, Munster in Ireland on November 11 and Harlequins in London on November 16.
