Elliot Dixon: 'When I got to the line, I knew the ball had landed on the boot'

Elliot Dixon’s disputed try on July 4, 2015, is the most controversial in Super Rugby history. It helped the Highlanders pull off a stunning 21-14 upset over the Hurricanes in a packed Westpac Stadium final in Wellington.

In the 39th minute, with the Highlanders leading 6-5, the lion-hearted Ngapuhi blindside crashed over the line in a pile-up after a herculean run, casting aside several Hurricanes defenders or leaving them straining to hang on.

Hand on heart, Elliott, did you score that try?

“Shit, it was close. Depends who I’m talking to,” Dixon, still a slender figure, responded with a twinkle in his eye to RugbyPass.

Nibbling on a decadent custard square at C1 cafe in Central Christchurch, owned by former New Zealand Secondary Schools teammate and South Canterbury halfback Nick Annear, Dixon is watched closely by Dagger, his regal German Shepherd.

“When I got to the line, I knew the ball had landed on the boot of Nehe Milner-Skudder and possibly part of the paint too,” Dixon continued.

“ Nasi Manu pulled me up. He was euphoric. He was convinced I had scored. The more times they showed it on the replay, the less likely I thought it would be given. There was one angle that looked good; the others, not so much.

“Was it tempting to fake a celebration? I’m not somebody who fakes shit. What’s the point of that with all the cameras? I was genuinely unsure.

Hurricanes coach Chris Boyd was adamant Dixon didn’t score. At the after-match press conference, Boyd said, “I actually thought he’d lost the ball but we tend to look at these things out of our own eyes.”

In 2022, he told the Otago Daily Times. “I accept two things – he didn’t score a try, and Julian Savea should have…It was about three years after that final that I finally got over the hurdle of watching it.”

A year earlier, when the Highlanders beat the Hurricanes 18-16 in Wellington, with Hayden Parker kicking all the points, Dixon had gone over the line in a TJ Perenara tackle. He told referee Jaco Peyper he didn’t score, and it went unrewarded.

“When the try was given, it was a massive boost before halftime,” Dixon said. “We played our best rugby after halftime, with Waisake Naholo scoring early on. Sometimes you need the rub of the green in big games. We got it that night.”

After an hour, All Blacks winger Julian Savea, in career best form, infamously dropped the ball over the try line when the score was 18-11 to the Highlanders.

A month earlier, at McLean Park in Napier, the Highlanders had lost 56-20 to the regular-season table-toppers. With a chip on their shoulder, the visitors rebounded with courage and cunning, best exemplified by Dixon’s try-scoring surge.

Dixon receives a skip pass from halfback Aaron Smith that evades two potential recipients on the left wing near the Hurricanes’ 22. A sudden burst of acceleration sees Nehe Milner-Skudder fall off Dixon’s right leg with a diving tackle attempt. Nearby All Blacks forwards Dane Coles and James Broadhurst are soon unable to cover. When fullback James Marshall is fended off, it is panic stations for the Hurricanes.

Dixon charges front-on into an overmatched TJ Perenara, who hangs on grimly but cannot stop Dixon’s momentum. Beauden Barrett rushes across on a right angle with Broadhurst trailing. Suddenly, Milner-Skudder resurfaces from the left and slides his left foot across the front of the pack as Dixon simultaneously stretches to put the ball down.

“It could have been a penalty try for Nehe’s slide tackle,” Dixon laughed.

“The skip pass to the edge was something we practised a lot. The idea was to find mismatches, and no one was better at exploiting them than Aaron Smith.

“We played mind games with the Hurricanes that rattled them. Things like leaving the lineout when they’d set up for a maul, surprise counterattacks, and random kicks.

“If we were going nowhere after three phases, we were under instruction from coach Tony Brown to kick it. This is something that happens today, big, fast wingers creating contests and chaos. We had Waiskale Naholo and Patrick Osborne.”

The Highlanders also had a hearty, underestimated forward pack that more than held its own. Hooker Liam Coltman became an All Black and Otago centurion. Alex Ainley played 100 games for Tasman and won two NPC premierships. No.8 and captain Nasi Manu played 9 Tests for Tonga. He resembled a Cyclops at fulltime, his battered face a symbol of bravery.

In his 50th game for the Highlanders, none was better than Dixon. Reporting for Stuff, Hamish Bidwell noted:

“Deserved man of the match. Just so physical and determined and adept at absorbing or inflicting punishment.”

Dixon played all 19 games for the Highlanders in 2015. When he first arrived in Dundien in 2011, he was told during pre-season training by coaches and former All Blacks Jamie Joseph and Kieran Keane, “you’re not ready,” but was picked because “we don’t want you going anywhere else.”

Dixon played in two defeats, nearly two months apart, against the Sharks (28-16) and the Brumbies (33-28) in 2012.

In 2013, the Highlanders finished 14th in the Super 15, winning 3 of 16 games. Recruited All Blacks Tony Woodcock, Hosea Gear, Ma’a Nonu and Andrew Hore were not a hit down south, but Dixon grew in stature, making 13 appearances.

“We had the best team on paper. I remember looking around at practice, thinking we were going to win the championship. When we pumped the Chiefs by 40 in pre-season, it felt like we only had to turn up,” Dixon said.

“We only beat the Sharks because their kicker missed a penalty in front towards the end of the game. Our best game was against the Blues, and we didn’t train that week.”

“Things just didn’t click. When the call was made to cut the stars, I guess some of the younger, more unfashionable players were able to build confidence with increasing minutes and cultivate a culture that better suited our identity.”

Dixon is known as a “tough bugger.” His family is from the Waimamaku Valley in Hokianga, and he belongs to the well-known Paniora whanau. When asked what he’d do if he weren’t a rugby player, Dixon once said, “I would be poor.”

In 2007, he was a part of a decorated St Bede’s College First XV in Christchurch that won 24 of 26 games and scored 955 points. Teammate and future Highlanders captain James Lentjes recalled, “He was a freak. He would catch the kick off and score.”

In 2009, Dixon was a member of the New Zealand Under-20s team that won the World Rugby Junior Championship in Tokyo. New Zealand beat England 44-28 in the final with future All Blacks Aaron Cruden and Zac Guildford scoring two tries each.

A log jam of quality flankers in Canterbury compelled Dixon to shift to Southland. The Stags began the 2010 season with the Ranfurly Shield for the first time since 1947. They’d beaten Canterbury in the last game of the previous year, 9-3, with Robbie Robinson a hero, kicking three penalties. Dixon quickly made the Stags’ starting line-up and helped Southland in six successful defences until they were beaten by Canterbury.

In 2011, Southland reclaimed the ‘Log o’ Wood’ from Canterbury 22-19 with James Wilson kicking a 77th-minute drop goal. Challenges from Counties Manukau (22-14) and North Harbour (25-23) were repelled before Taranaki proved too strong.

“Jamie Mackintosh, Jason Rutledge, Chris King, Tim Boys, Josh Bekhuis, we were a bloody good side. We’d get the ball and hold it at the back of a ruck for 30 seconds. Sometimes we’d do that for a whole game. They changed the rules because of us, “Dixon laughed.

“Socially, you’d turn up to the Speights Ale House and be sorted for six hours. I think some of that Southland grit and hospitality rubbed off on the Highlanders.”

The Highlanders turned a corner in 2014, making the playoffs for the first time since 2002. The 2015 team remains the only championship winner, but Dixon reckons the 2016 team, which lost in the semi-finals 42-30 to the Lions in Johannesburg, was more talented.

“Sorry to say it, I reckon if the Lions hadn’t sent a B-Team to play the Jaguares in the last round of the 2016 season, the Hurricanes wouldn’t have been champions that year.  Winning in Johannesburg was bloody tough at the time,” Dixon said.

“Maybe the draw would have conspired for a Hurricanes-Highlanders rematch, that would have been fun.”

The Hurricanes and Highlanders split their 2016 meetings, with the Highlanders prevailing 17-16 in Dunedin in March. The Hurricanes returned serve, 27-20, in May, with Ardie Savea scoring two tries.

Meanwhile, Dixon’s career continued to soar. He became All Black #1149 and played in three Test victories against Wales (46-6), Argentina (36-17) and Italy (68-10) in 2016.

However, after 105 games, 55 wins, and a dozen tries for the Highlanders between 2012 and 2019, Dixon is forever remembered for his disputed Hurricanes try in 2015.

“It’s not even my favourite try. In 2016, I got a couple in a 30-26 win over the Warathas in Sydney. I pushed off Zac Guildford and outsprinted him to the line. We’d been teammates in the New Zealand Under-20s. He had some serious toe on the wing, so that was a good one,” Dixon said.

“I don’t mind the attention about the Hurricanes’ try. It reminds you of a special time at the Highlanders. Sometimes people yell at me in the street, usually claiming it wasn’t a try, which is always a laugh. One time it came up at a christening, bloody hell.”

A father of three, Dixon retired from rugby in 2023 after stints with the Black Rams, Tokyo, and 37 games for Biarritz in France. He is now a Recruitment Consultant at Turbo Staff and has turned his hand to coaching, initially at his old school, St Bede’s College and in 2026 with the Christchurch Rugby Football Club.

Dixon’s handshake is vice-like, especially compared to your correspondent’s diminutive mitts. As I withdraw to depart, Dixon pauses for effect.

“Bro, it was a try.”

P.S. South African Jaco Peyper was the referee for the 2015 Super Rugby final. The Highlanders’ record under his whistle was four wins in 10 matches, while the Hurricanes’ was 6 wins in 15. He officiated 67 Test matches, retiring in 2024. Ben Skeen was the television match official (TMO).

He was the TMO on 68 internationals, perhaps best remembered for his controversial interventions at the 2019 Rugby World Cup. In a pool game between Australia and Wales, Skeen recommended Wallabies midfielder Samu Kerevi be penalised for a collision between the forearm and neck while carrying the ball into a tackle by Welsh first-five Rhys Patchell.

Wales won the game narrowly by 29-25 while Skeen incurred the wrath of the bitter Wallabies.  In the Wales v Fiji game, four yellow cards were issued, two of which were recommended by Skeen. In the Australia v England quarter-final, he missed a forward pass in the lead-up to a try. French referee Jerome Garcès requested a forward pass check; Skeen suggested play on but was overruled by Garcès. Skeen is now the headmaster of St Paul’s Collegiate in Hamilton.