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Hollie Davidson set to make history with Boks

By PA
Hollie Davidson (Photo by Dan Mullan/The RFU Collection via Getty Images)

Hollie Davidson will make rugby union history on Saturday when she becomes the first woman to referee world champions South Africa in a Test match.

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The Scottish official will take charge of the Springboks’ clash against Portugal in Bloemfontein.

“I think it will be a really energetic game at altitude, so that is a challenge in itself, but I think the occasion will be fantastic,” Davidson told Scottish Rugby following her appointment to the fixture.

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“Sometimes when you get these appointments you are a little taken aback, so it is good to always reflect on where you started to where you are now.

“I very much see this as part of the journey to getting to the World Cup in 2027, so a good stepping stone.”

Fixture
Internationals
South Africa
64 - 21
Full-time
Portugal
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It comes just five months after she was the first female referee to be part of an on-pitch officiating team for a men’s Six Nations fixture.

Davidson was one of the assistant referees when England met Wales at Twickenham in February.

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She controlled Portugal’s encounter against Italy in 2022, meanwhile, and refereed Canada versus Romania in Ottawa last weekend.

Davidson is also scheduled to referee the Pacific Nations Cup Test between Japan and the United States in Saitama on September 7.

South Africa have never met Portugal before, and they go into the game – their final fixture before the Rugby Championship – following a drawn Test series against Ireland.

Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus has made wholesale changes from the side beaten by Ireland in Durban, including starts for uncapped forwards Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Johan Grobbelaar and Phepsi Buthelezi.

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Comments

4 Comments
W
Willem 211 days ago

Congrats Holly, hope you have a great game. You deserve to move up. You worked hard for it.

D
Dan 212 days ago

As long as she is more Karl Dickson than Pearce, Whitehouse and Barnes, she'll do great.

J
John 212 days ago

I’d do her…I kid. Nice to see more gender equity

T
Thomas 212 days ago

Congratulations to her. Let’s hope for a fair game, as uneventful as possible for the refs.

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JW 4 hours ago
France player ratings vs England | 2025 Six Nations

Sorry my delivery on that joke was a bit bland. But to reply to the couple of good points you make, to me it just seemed like they had no plan with why Gatland was staying on. I mean the plan seemed to be “just get us a win against Italy and we can continue on as we are”, which is just terrible if that’s what Gatland was trying to achieve for Wales imo.


Did it just happen to be Italy that he saw his team weren’t able to achieve his vision of success? I mean Italy are a very good side so its by no means a lost cause to not look like world beaters. Sure his focus should have been on more transient factors like growth and style for a full rebuild, not trying to avoid the wooden spoon.


Which brings me to you main point, that would be exactly what the benefit of dropping down a tier would be. A chance to really implement something, get good at it, then take it up a level again once you’re ready. Even for Italy it must have been an incredibly brutal environment to have been trying to develop as a side.


Not saying of course that the other EU teams would be any better, but it might be better for everyone if say ‘years of tough losses’ are shared between countries, rather than see Wales go through this journey two, three, possible four years in a row. Of course the main reason they don’t want to miss just one 6N season is because it would probably tank the game in their country missing out on all that revenue. I have always said they should look at widening the revenue share, there are plenty of competitions that have systems to keep bottom teams competitive, and the 6N would only make more money if it was a tierd competition with prom/rel.

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