Scotland’s first female rugby referee is aiming for the top
SCOTLAND’S FIRST SENIOR FEMALE REFEREE HOLLIE DAVIDSON HAS HER SIGHTS SET ON THE VERY TOP
Sitting on a Zoom call with one of the few contracted female referees in the world, one might be forgiven for confusing official with athlete.
Physically strong and lean, Hollie Davidson was on the pathway to play rugby for Scotland before injury ended her dreams of playing for her country at the highest level.
At just 28 years of age, she’s now turned sorrow into success as she steers a route to the top of the game as a referee. in her sights, taking charge of Scotland men’s internationals — and she’s already well on her way to achieving her ambitions.
A product of the referee pathway at Scottish Rugby, Davidson is adamant that she has been treated well throughout her journey in a world that is dominated by men. the only issue has been in what others call her during a game.
‘A lot of the time it’s like: “What can we call you? is ‘sir’ okay?” they’re trying to be respectful and polite and my job is about going out there and facilitating the game that they love,’ she says. ‘So it’s not about me. if they call me “sir” i’m fine with that, as that’s a respected term in rugby that
I would love to establish myself in the Pro14 and Europe
they’re using towards me. i don’t mind “sir”. i don’t particularly like being called “ma’am”. A lot of people just call me “ref” as they probably think that’s the most gender-neutral term to use.
‘in the Super6, because the lads see me a lot, they sometimes call me “Hollie”, which i think is fine in that situation because it’s like a little Scottish rugby bubble, but as i go up through the male game, it’ll probably be just “ref” or “sir”.’
Forging her way up the men’s game is on Davidson’s agenda, and she received her first call-up to a men’s European match in January. Her hopes were shattered, however, when the game was postponed because of coronavirus.
‘it was so gutting,’ she admits. ‘the call-off was so last minute. i would be lying if i said i wasn’t nervous. When i got the call to take part, it was out of the blue — i was working the Edinburghglasgow game on January 2 and got a call the next day from SRU referee development manager Andrew Macpherson. He said: “You’re doing the newcastle v Castres game”, and i was like: “What?!” And there were a lot of swear words at that point because i was so taken aback.
‘i couldn’t believe it. But once i got off the phone and allowed it to sink in, you just try and prepare in your head for what’s coming.
‘i was so nervous that when it got called off i didn’t feel like i was in my own head. Hopefully now i’ve got some more games under my belt, i’ll be in a better position to go into the next fixture. it would have been the pinnacle for me.’
Davidson was appointed to officiate the Pro14 game between glasgow Warriors and Benetton but was left cursing her luck when that game was also postponed.
Her opportunity will finally come tomorrow when she will take charge of the Pro14 fixture between Munster and Benetton at thomond Park.
irish official Joy neville — who is the only female official thus far to take charge of a championship fixture — will serve as television Match Official, which will make this the first fixture in a top-tier men’s professional club rugby game where both the referee and tMO roles are filled by female officials.
Sportsmail understands she will be back in action on March 27 for the rescheduled game between glasgow and Benetton.
‘the Pro14 within Scotland is what people here judge you on, so making my debut will be so cool,’ says Davidson. ‘You want to take any opportunity that’s there.’
Her career wasn’t always destined to be in the world of rugby. As a youngster in Aberdeen, her sport of choice was football, and through her teenage years she became a regular at Pittodrie as part of the community football set-up for youngsters.
‘i grew up just outside of glasgow, and everyone knows that on the west coast, football is the biggest sport,’ she continues. ‘then i moved north to Aboyne.
‘At seven years old i was playing for Deeside and Aboyne Primary. i was the only girl in the team. i used to go to Aberdeen FC for Dons in the Community and i was at every one of their camps. then i moved to Deeside and played for them from 9-15 years old. i actually played left-back for Deeside. i was 12 and playing for the Under-17s!’
travel and the hard slog of trips from Aboyne to the central belt finally put paid to her footballing days, and it was a touch of innovation by her teacher at Aboyne Academy that sealed her move into rugby.
‘When i moved north, girls’ football became less accessible and i was having to travel a lot to get to my team to play local games in the north-east,’ she says. ‘So at that point i moved to rugby.
‘My teacher was a guy called Dave Kirby and he was a huge Bath Rugby supporter. He was the one who decided to start a team and begin coaching us, and it was down to him that my love for rugby began and why i’m here now.’
As Davidson became more engrossed in the game, a move into the Scotland Under-20s came calling, while studying and playing rugby at Edinburgh University.
From there, she received her first call-up to the Scotland A squad, but it was to be a bittersweet moment. She had been invited to train with the national squad at Strathallan for a weekend of testing, and remembers thinking: ‘this is it. this is where i want to be.’
‘i got named to get my first senior cap at 19 against the Dutch but i had started getting this niggle on my shoulder,’ she explains. ‘We would do training games on the Friday before we were due to fly but my shoulder was just not okay.
‘Everything had gone out to the media about me stepping up from the 20s and getting capped. When i got the phone call saying it was too much of a risk, i found it really difficult because everything had been on an upward trajectory.
‘I fought to get fit and I was still in the training set-up. They said: “We’ll keep you in the 20s for now and get you more experience as a leader in that environment and once you graduate, you’ll come up”, but this shoulder injury just never went away. Every tackle I made on it was excruciating.
‘I had an operation in my last year of university and I tried to get back in and play at Edinburgh Wanderers and get back to the top level but it just wasn’t happening.
‘I think you know when you’re not progressing any further, so I said “enough’s enough”.’
Davidson credits Sarah Quick and Bob Easson at Scottish Rugby for helping her find an alternative. They arranged a women-only refereeing course on a Saturday, rather than their habitual slot on a Sunday, a practice that had hitherto catered for male attendees who played on Saturdays.
‘It shocked me how little I knew,’ admits Davidson. ‘I found it far harder than I had first anticipated. It was different from playing and very challenging in a different way.
‘I like a challenge, I like being pushed outside my comfort zone.’
Her rise through rugby’s refereeing system has been rapid. She began her new career getting changed in tiny cupboards to officiate at age-grade boys’ games. From there, having endured the anger and derision of some excitable parents on the sidelines, she progressed to men’s games and the Women’s Premiership.
Scottish Rugby referee commissioner Tappe Henning could see Davidson’s potential and put her forward to officiate sevens matches at the Invitational Tournament in Dubai in 2016. She attended a World Rugby referees’ camp in the lead-up, completing the technical workshops and surviving the ‘brutal’ physical training. With only seven months’ experience to her name, she was in charge of New Zealand’s tie against Brazil in the World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series in Las Vegas in March 2017.
Scotland’s first professional female referee, Davidson reckons she is one of only four or five female refs in the world who are contracted to their country’s union.
Now, with appointments at a higher level, she is keen to focus on moving up towards the best of the best in the game.
‘I’d love to establish myself as a solid referee in the tournament, in the Pro14 and EPCR (European Professional Club Rugby),’ she says. ‘I don’t want to turn up twice every year; I’d like to be getting regular games and improving. I’d love to get into the Challenge Cup and then the Champions Cup, then men’s internationals, whether it’s tier two, tier one, or on the line. That would be amazing.’
Davidson is in no mood to blow her chance in the big games when they come and there seems no reason why she should do so. Covid-19 and poor weather are surely only delaying a further rise in her career.
Challenges on her shoulder may have ended her playing career but shouldering challenges is something she relishes. Glass ceilings, stereotypes and sneering are there to be smashed and silenced.
‘Part and parcel of the job is that people are going to want to critique your performance,’ she says. ‘If I have a bad game, I’ve had a bad game as a referee, not because I’m a bad female referee.
‘There are going to be challenges along the way and resistance at times but if you stick to who you are, those barriers come down very quickly.
‘People get to know you and are willing to jump on that journey with you and help.
‘You have to enjoy the journey because you just don’t know when it’s going to stop.’
I enjoy a challenge and being pushed out of my comfort zone