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Pioneering ref Hollie Davidson reveals men's Rugby World Cup ambition
By Gary Heatly
Trailblazer Hollie Davidson has achieved so much as a rugby official already, but the Scot feels she has “so much still to give” and has her sights firmly set on being involved at the men’s Rugby World Cup in 2027 in Australia.
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The 32-year-old from Aboyne in Aberdeenshire took up the whistle in late 2015 before becoming a full-time professional in 2017 with Scottish Rugby.
Over the last eight years she has not so much broken glass ceilings as smashed through them and on Wednesday she was at Murrayfield to receive her Scottish Rugby referee cap from the governing body’s president Keith Wallace at a special ceremony with family and officiating colleagues proudly watching on.
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After receiving the cap, Davidson said: “This is fantastic and for Scottish Rugby to be recognising referees who are flying the flag around the world is really important.
“I think referees probably want to go very much under the radar.
“And this cap honour is probably more for the people that have been supporting me over the years than for myself.
“There is a big group of people, both in the refereeing community and in my family, that have helped me get to where I am now. Without that support, refereeing can be a tough place.
“I’m a proud Scot myself, so I hope I’m doing my country proud out there when I’m refereeing.
“I’m also proud to say I am a match official.
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“I’ve achieved things that I probably never thought I was going to be able to and to receive this cap definitely feels like recognition for the work and effort that has been put in over the past 10 years or so.
“And I just feel like I’ve got so much still to give, learn and, fingers crossed, excel at.
“I’m super excited about the future and I don’t see it slowing down any time soon which is really exciting.
“My big goal would be to referee in 2027 at the men’s World Cup, I’d be lying if I said that that wasn’t one of my ambitions.
“I think, over the next year, we’ll know if I’m on track to do that.”
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In total Davidson has now taken charge of 24 women’s Tests, including the Rugby World Cup 2021 – played in 2022 – final, and 11 men’s Tests.
The men’s Tests have included South Africa versus Portugal and Ireland versus Fiji last year while, before those ones in 2022, she became the first female to officiate a men’s Tier 1 side when she took charge of Italy’s match in Portugal.
She has refereed women’s Six Nations title deciders and been an assistant referee in the men’s Six Nations, most recently when Ireland took on England earlier this month.
Men’s URC, Challenge Cup and Champions Cup matches have also been ticked off as have age-grade tournaments and plenty of sevens at the Commonwealth Games and the Olympics.
“All of the experiences that happened to me in 2024 I did not foresee happening,” Davidson explained about a busy time last year.
“Going from refereeing South Africa-Portugal men to being in charge for Ireland-Fiji and then being referee for the Stade Francais-Saracens Champions Cup game was crazy.
“I feel like I’ve now got a lot of experience, you get scars on your back quite quickly in this game, but I think they’ve allowed me to grow very quickly across the last six months or so.
“When I was running the line for the Ireland-England men’s game just a couple of weeks ago, I was actually really excited to go out there where as a year before, when I made my men’s Six Nations debut as an assistant referee in England-Wales, I was so nervous and maybe I thought I shouldn’t have been there.
“Now I feel quite comfortable in the environment and I deserve to have my spot here. It’s probably a mind shift from me in that sense.”
With increased exposure to the top level of the game comes more eyes on you and more scrutiny over your performances.
How does Davidson, who studied at Aboyne Academy and Edinburgh University and then worked as a fund accounting specialist at JP Morgan before choosing this career route, cope with that?
“I think earlier in my career it was really hard, probably because it’s just such unknown territory, you’re just not used to it,” she admitted.
“I’d gone from a corporate job where there were no people effing and blinding at me every day to something completely different.
“The higher up you go in refereeing there’s almost now an expectation that it [scrutiny] is part of the beast.
“It’s all about having mechanisms in place to deal with the abuse.
“Especially after that Ireland-Fiji men’s game last year, I was emotionally fatigued from it.
“For me, it’s about knowing that I go through the same processes whether a game goes well or whether a game doesn’t go well and that keeps me on an even keel.
“I have such a strong support network around me and this is my job. I know that there are also important things outside my job so I can’t put too much weighting on the hurtful stuff that does come in.
“At Scottish Rugby I am fortunate to work with [fellow full-time officials] Sam Grove-White and Mike Adamson.
“The three of us have been through such a journey together. If you’ve never been in that situation [having a performance scrutinised], you can’t really empathise how difficult it is, but both boys have been in the firing line and been through difficult times too.
“We’re able to really understand truly what it’s like in the dark days and we can be there for each another.”
Davidson first got involved in playing rugby when a school team was formed at Aboyne Academy.
The team did really well and made it to an under-18 final at the national stadium against Murrayfield Wanderers – and from then she was hooked.
She progressed to the regional pathway set-up and then picked rugby back up at university in Edinburgh which led her to the Scottish Universities Sevens squad, Murrayfield Wanderers, touring sevens teams, the Scotland under-20 squad and the Scotland training squad.
Indeed, the scrum-half so nearly earned a full Scotland cap in 2011 versus Netherlands.
“We’d played a game on the Friday evening before that one, a Scotland select game, and I’d had a stinger on the shoulder,” Davidson explained.
“I was expected on the bench for the Netherlands game and I’d been in the Scotland training camp all that summer.
“Everything was tracking really well and I was like ‘this is going to be fantastic’.
“Then I got the call on the Sunday evening leading up to the Test saying it’s too risky and at that point, I was like ‘this is my entire journey in rugby coming to a halt’.
“I was only 19 so I was catastrophising and, looking back, I genuinely think that situation probably gave me a bit of resilience to say ‘let’s come back stronger’.
“And, a few years down the line after I stopped playing, that setback led to me giving absolutely everything in terms of refereeing.”
We all know that scrum-halves like talking to referees during games and keeping in their ear, so does Davidson feel having been a nippy nine has helped her as a referee?
“You’re always right in the action as a scrum-half and so is a referee, so I think having played that position has certainly helped me moving forward,” she said.
“I think being a nine allows you to feel both sides of the game.
“You’ve got the backs that are a little bit more detached and you’ve got the forwards that are always in the mix, but playing in that nine position you have a good awareness of the game as a whole – I definitely think playing there helped in my transition to being a referee.”
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The equality debate is always on the cards as women thinks that biology doesn't count and they deserve the same, but in this instance which is very rare indeed, Holly Davidson truely deserves everything coming her way. Very professional and very good at her job. She does make mistakes like the rest of the officials, but way less than most. Personally I'd rate her in the top 5 overall. I hope they give her the the top job more in the men's games like matches in the RC and RWC finals to see just how good she can be.
Delighted to see her making headway. I’ve always been struck by how calm and knowledgeable she is, and hopefully she will get the matches her ability demands.