“I probably stood out like a sore thumb,” says Hollie Davidson as she reflects on the long hard road she has travelled to reach the point where, on Saturday, in Dublin, she will become the first woman to referee a men’s Six Nations game. Davidson leans forward in her chair and ticks off some of the doubts she has had to overcome amid derision and prejudice.
“At the beginning,” the 33‑year‑old says, “the big thing was, always, physically can she do it? Will she be able to keep up with the men’s game? What happens if she gets knocked over? Is her rugby knowledge there? How will players and fans react to her? That sexism is still there at points, but people now just want to see a game being well refereed.”
There was no such acceptance at the start of her career in 2015. She nods when asked if she was verbally abused. “Yes. Straight off the bat. The stuff shouted from the sidelines was ridiculous. It was all about where I should be instead of a pitch or that I should be doing other things with my Saturday than refereeing a game. All the classics.”
She also had to hear bleak and frightening words. “There would be indications of where I should go after the game for players to do whatever they wanted with me.”
Davidson was in her early 20s then and, at times, she felt very lonely. “The beginning of my career was the most isolating and lonely point because you’re learning your craft and the resources and the right people around you are few and far between.
“It’s different now. I arrive at a game with at least three of my colleagues. I’ve got my coach on the end of the line. I’ve got a manager and a sports psychologist, I’ve got all the support. But, at the beginning, you move into a space that feels very scary.”
She describes “a game on the outskirts of Edinburgh” as being particularly testing. “Some of the comments shocked me when I was setting up a lineout. Sometimes reffing is tough because you take a lot and you can’t say much back. But I wouldn’t accept someone saying that to me if it wasn’t my job. While I couldn’t say much, I’ve got quite a strong look.”
Davidson offers warm and amusing company, but, briefly, she shows me an expression of steely defiance. She looks formidable before she smiles. “I’ve got a distinctive look and it was telling the man this is not acceptable. I’d blown my whistle and I gave him the look – almost to say that if anything else happens I either call this game off or you’re gone.
“Sometimes, through the toughest moments, you learn a lot. I learned this path would be challenging and tricky. But I also learned something about myself.” That she is tough and resilient? “Yes.”
Was the man quiet after she shot him that look? Davidson laughs. “He was silent. It showed me I have that grit to deflect it without using words of confrontation. That kind of thing happens a few times when you start out because the crowds aren’t big so when stuff is shouted you really pick it up. When I referee now, what you hear in a stadium is very much reduced. But what you see and hear post-game is obviously amplified.”
We will return to the painful subject of abuse, and the match that made her question whether she could continue being a referee, but it feels right to celebrate Davidson’s achievement. She is full of so much justified excitement and pride that we focus on the sheer joy of another glass ceiling being shattered in the conservative world of Six Nations rugby.
Where was she when she heard that she would make tournament history? Davidson smiles helplessly. “I was at home and I got a phone call from Joël Jutge, the referees’ manager. We spoke about the Tests I’d done and I thought he was saying they were going to put me back as an assistant referee. But he said: ‘OK, I’ll share some news with you.’ There was a pause.
“Then he said: ‘You will be refereeing in the men’s Six Nations.’ An absolute wave of relief turned to excitement. He told me I’m doing Ireland versus Italy on 14 February and I said: ‘That’s absolutely fantastic.’ But it still had to be announced so I couldn’t tell anybody. I had to keep stumm for a week and a half.”
Davidson refereed the past two women’s World Cup finals and, in men’s rugby, she has taken charge of games featuring the All Blacks and the Springboks. But, as a Scot, the Six Nations feels magical.
Her love of rugby was forged by going to matches at Murrayfield with her dad and also with her school. She can’t remember the result of the first international she saw, between Scotland and Wales, because “my most vivid memory is of the hats the Welsh fans wore, all those yellow daffodils”. She says: “I was about 12 and from then until I left school we would go every single year to either the Six Nations or the November Tests. Until then, I’d been playing football, but once I experienced that buzz at Murrayfield I was hooked.”
Davidson helped to set up a girls rugby team at her school near Balmoral and, as a “yappy little terrier” of a scrum-half, she showed considerable talent when playing at Edinburgh University. She was picked for Scotland Under-20 and called up to the senior squad for a match against the Netherlands, but she popped her shoulder in a practice game. “To this day, it absolutely pains me to never fulfil that dream of being capped. I had two bouts of surgery on my shoulder and after that I could never get back into the setup.”
Davidson was devastated, but the experience fuelled her. She believes rugby came easily to her as a player and she did not always show the dedication elite sport demands – “but I have absolutely grabbed my opportunities in refereeing”.
It took two years of hard graft as a part-time ref until, in 2017, Davidson left her job in banking at JP Morgan to turn professional. Her salary was cut by more than 50% and Davidson’s family and friends “couldn’t quite believe it”.
“But until then I’d always done the expected thing. I finished school, went to university, got my degree [in economic history] and a good job. I’d never deviated off the conventional path. My boss [at JP Morgan] was a huge supporter of my refereeing and he was so gutted I was leaving. But he also said: ‘If you doubt your decision I’ll be throwing you out of this office. The opportunity to go down this path is once in a lifetime.’”
Davidson also realised that, as Scotland’s first female professional referee, she had a chance to bring about change. “In my gut I knew I could make a difference and go to places that have been untouched before. It was a big risk, but something I absolutely loved.”
When she was given a chance to referee her first men’s international, between Portugal and Italy, in Lisbon in 2022, she did not shrink from difficult, but correct decisions. “That was my stepping stone on to the international scene and you want to go under the radar. Now four yellow cards and two penalty tries is not under the radar. But it was very beneficial because I proved I wasn’t scared to make those big decisions in a very tight game. It became a pivotal moment in my progression.”
In her first women’s World Cup final, between New Zealand and England at Eden Park in 2021, she again proved her temperament when, after 18 minutes, she sent off the Red Roses’ Lydia Thompson. “I knew it was a red card,” Davidson says. “It was black and white, but it gave me a little bit of energy to know I could deliver.”
Davidson is candid about errors she has made and equally honest about the abuse she has suffered. She reveals that during a women’s Six Nations match between France and England in Bayonne in 2022 “things just weren’t working for me for whatever reason, I don’t know why”, adding: “I prepped the same and went into the game physically feeling really good. But I missed a penalty try against England and a simple yellow card.
“Those two big decisions went against France. I wasn’t on the money and I received a lot of abuse and hatred. It was a tough time to say: ‘How do I pick myself up? When I’d done all my preparation in the same way, why did it not go well for me?’” After the game, Davidson says, “we were escorted off the pitch, we had stuff thrown at us and were spat on”.
“We went out for some dinner, but there was lots of animosity everywhere we went so we just went back to the hotel. You either decide: ‘This isn’t for me, bye-bye,’ or you say: ‘OK, I want to be at the top end. There are certain things I have to accept and certain growth areas that I need to be better at.’ I took that choice.”
She also received ferocious online abuse after the European Challenge final between Bath and Lyon in Cardiff last season. “I made a wrong call on a head contact and my name was being pulled through the mud and then my family received abuse. It really challenged me when I thought I was causing my family pain.”
Davidson was supported unequivocally by her family. “You have to accept this is part and parcel of our job. But I hope we don’t get to a point where the only people left at the top are the people that can hack it. Because then we don’t have the best officials, we just have the people with thicker skins.”
She has grit, and empathy, and her growing success is one of rugby’s most inspiring stories. Davidson will make history on Saturday, but her legacy will continue to deepen and bring about more change. She hopes to be selected as a referee at the men’s World Cup next year and has an “insane” dream – to take charge of a men’s World Cup final. But she stresses: “I need to do well in the Six Nations and then there’ll be a lot of knockout fixtures at the tail end of our domestic season. As long as I keep the head down, keep growing and reflecting, I’ll be in a good position.”
Davidson nods when I say it would be fitting if the abusive man she silenced with a single look all those years ago sees her take charge of her first Six Nations fixture. Her face then lights up with a winning smile as she says just one word: “Absolutely.”
Hollie Davidson uses Vodafone PLAYER.Connect , a monitoring system designed for female athletes.
