Davidson set to blaze trail again with Six Nations milestone
SPOTLIGHT: Hollie Davidson has achieved many firsts in her career, but Saturday will be the highlight so far, becoming the first woman to referee a men’s Six Nations match when Ireland host Italy.
The 33-year-old Scottish referee is already in the traditionally conservative sport’s history books as the first woman to take charge of a men’s Test – Portugal against Italy (2022) – and of both a South Africa (2024) and a New Zealand international (2025).
She has also overseen successive Women’s Rugby World Cup finals.
Now, she is just days away from entering the intimidating atmosphere of Lansdowne Road – a far cry from her days working for investment bank JP Morgan, and a markedly smaller pay cheque.
Davidson says she always thought a Six Nations match was out of her reach.
“When you start, you think what you could achieve, and you dream of certain things,” she told Tuesday’s edition of The Times newspaper.
“But then you get into it, and you start questioning those ambitions. Something like the Six Nations, that just felt so far away, an unachievable goal.
“Now that it’s happening, I can’t quite believe it’s becoming a reality.”
It has been far from an easy road to these heady heights – Davidson has had a fair share of abuse.
She is not the first referee to encounter online abuse – former England referee Wayne Barnes’s family were targeted with death threats — but Davidson was appalled that it dragged in those closest to her.
The torrent of abuse in this case was sparked by what she admitted was a wrong call on a head contact in last season’s Challenge Cup final.
“I made a wrong call on a head contact, and my name was being pulled through the mud, and then my family received abuse,” she told The Guardian.
“It really challenged me when I thought I was causing my family pain.”
‘A strong look’
Davidson, though, prays that such abuse does not drive good referees out of the sport.
“You have to accept this is part and parcel of our job,” said Davidson, who has a degree in economic history.
“But I hope we don’t get to a point where the only people left at the top are the people who can hack it.
“Because then we don’t have the best officials, we just have the people with thicker skins.”
If any of the players think they can intimidate Davidson, they should think again.
They might tower over her, but she has shown before that she is more than capable of dealing with them, as she did in a game in Scotland.
“Some of the comments shocked me when I was setting up a lineout,” she told The Guardian.
“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.
“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.”
This steely resolve has been a feature of Davidson’s throughout her life – her love of rugby was such that she took a 50 percent pay cut to pursue her dream of reaching the top as a referee.
“My boss (at JP Morgan) was a huge supporter of my refereeing, and he was so gutted I was leaving,” she said.
“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.”
She has certainly seized that opportunity with both hands, and the final whistle is a long way from blowing on her rise to the top.
