Davidson: 'When comments land in your own personal inbox it is a shock'

The honour of blowing the first whistle in the men’s 2024 Rugby Europe Championship falls to Hollie Davidson, who hopes that the Netherlands’ game against Spain in Amsterdam this Saturday will be the first of many big-match appointments this year.

It is her fourth men’s Test in the middle and comes the week before she becomes the first female on-pitch official in the Men’s Six Nations, after being chosen to run touch in the England v Wales fixture at Twickenham.

For the 31-year-old Scot, who was speaking to RugbyPass on her way back to Edinburgh after attending the Whistleblowers premiere in London on Monday night, it is a case of gaining as much experience as possible in the countdown to Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025.

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“This year is the one year where I am just trying to get as many games as possible in the middle under my belt so any opportunity I have when I am out refereeing is just trying to get better,” said Davidson, who created history in 2022 when she became the first female to referee a Six Nations men’s team after being appointed for Italy’s game with Portugal.

“I don’t have too much experience in the men’s game still, so whenever I go out and referee it is about working with my coach JP Doyle to fine tune some little things and constantly develop my style of refereeing.

“Players can practice their skills in training or do some extra sessions where they might go out and goal kick or practice their throwing or their passing, their individual skills, whereas really the only time a referee can practice fully is in the heat of the 80 minutes. So for me to be able to improve and develop, I need to be refereeing as many games as I can throughout the season.”

More exposure to high-profile matches obviously comes with more scrutiny and, sadly, the chances of suffering online abuse also increase.

As a female official, Davidson has not been immune to misogynous comments but this year she’ll be protected by World Rugby’s drive to hold online trolls to account for their actions.

One individual in Australia has been charged for online abuse, cases in other jurisdictions are pending – including France, New Zealand, the UK – and 1,600 social media accounts have been reported to platforms for breach of their community guidelines.

“When comments land in your own personal inbox it is a shock and, unfortunately, it is something you have to comes to terms with and almost get used to, which, probably on reflection, it shouldn’t be like that,” said Davidson, who hails from Aberdeenshire but now lives in Edinburgh.

“We are not saying we are not open to criticism but the nature in which the criticism had developed over the last few years has become increasingly threatening, and we want that to stop.”

Davidson’s last venture to Amsterdam a couple of weeks ago passed off without incident and she is hoping to facilitate another good game this weekend.

With the match being played on an artificial surface, the desire of Netherlands and Spain to play at high tempo should also be aided by the fact Davidson is a referee who likes to let games flow.

“We saw last year in the REC that the games are so competitive and are a really high standard, so to go to Amsterdam and get the first game out of the box is really exciting,” she said.

“I was out there refereeing a few weeks ago for the Cheetahs’ game against Pau in the Challenge Cup and it was a (4,500) sell-out so, hopefully, we will see the same on Saturday.”

The Netherlands’ game against Spain is the first of four on the opening weekend of the 2024 Rugby Europe Championship, which operates under the same format as last year – two pools of four with the top two teams progressing to the Cup semi-finals.

Having been kept apart in the pool stages, Georgia and Portugal will be favourites to re-enact last year’s final which the Lelos won comfortably, 38-11 in Badejoz, Spain.

This year the final will be played in Paris, at Stade Jean Bouin, on March 17, and it is hoped that with the game taking place in such an iconic venue the day after the final Men’s Six Nations match between France and England, last year’s attendance of 6,000 will be smashed.

The road to Paris starts in Belgium for Portugal, who are one of four teams to have a new head coach in charge in former Los Pumas head honcho, Daniel Hourcade. That match will be streamed live on RugbyPass TV.

Spain, meanwhile, are also led by an Argentinian in Pablo Bouza, while Georgia begin life under Richard Cockerill away to Germany in one of the two Sunday games.

Romania, who face Poland in Gydnia day in the other, have former Portugal assistant, David Gérard at the helm.

The Oaks have suffered record defeats in their last five matches and had a terrible time at the Rugby World Cup, so Gérard is swapping one team on a high for one in dire need of an upturn in fortunes.

Portugal performed the best of the three Rugby Europe Championship teams at the Rugby World Cup, drawing with Georgia and then, famously, getting their first-ever Rugby World Cup win against Fiji.

However, they have never won the Rugby Europe Championship before and with six consecutive titles behind them, Georgia remain the team to beat.