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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.
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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.
“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.
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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.”
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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.
Comments on RugbyPass
Think it was a great defensive performance by Northampton. They didn't have stage fright in the first half, the Nienaber defense smothered them. They limited Leinster to 15-3 in the first half. It could have been over by then. A great try from Leinster in the start of the second half looked to have sealed it. But Byrne missed another conversion. Northampton started trying little kicks behind the Leinster wingers. Leinster messed one and Smith brilliantly made the conversion. Leinster decided to tighten the game after Byrne missed a straight forward penalty. A few errors got NH into the 22 and they scored and converted with a few minutes left. Another brilliant steal from Lawes saw NH have a final attack which was turned over by Conan. A classic semi final. World record attendance of 82,300. Leinsters 3 week preparation warranted for this one.
1 Go to commentsJust came back from the game and the atmosphere was amazing. Players stayed afterwards for more than a hour to sign stuff and take photos with fans. Great day out.
5 Go to commentsA great game. The Sharks without Etsebeth are a shadow of the team compared to when he plays. The limitations of Some of the expensive Sharks players are being exposed. Credit to Clermont for some exhilaration play at times.
5 Go to comments100% Mr Owens. But who would want to be a referee.? It must be the most difficult job on earth.
1 Go to commentsStarts to be overdone and oversold this systematic SA narrative…which nevertheless has the merit in this case to recognise blatant refereeing mistakes in their favor
5 Go to commentsNice article. Shades of Steinbeck. They can win the final if they take the game seriously; but only if they take it seriously.
5 Go to commentsWhat a sad way to end a glittering career. Somebody should tell him to delete his social media accounts and face the consequences of what he's done. Then he should slip away quietly into obscurity. This isn't likely to happen, something tells me he'll be back in The Sun / Daily Mail sooner rather than later.
3 Go to commentsguys its fine! he understands why he did what he did and has taken accountability for it; why should he have to be accountable to a court? after all he did was abuse people in person - its not as if he was engaging in _online_ abuse!
3 Go to commentsChiefs flanker Kaylum Boshier yellow-carded for collapsing the scrum as it rolled towards the line. It was a maul….
1 Go to commentsyou know, i’m a leinster fan so I want Northampton to lose and it is gonna be tuff with Cortney lawes, Alex michell and the other guys🏉 lets go leinster🏉
1 Go to commentsWelcome to the Pro ranks. Those hard teams of old do hit the sole better though. its a dog fight at the top.
6 Go to commentsCan someone fill me in please, I've read a number of Ben Smith articles now and it seems he's got something again South Africa? Surely, this game was over and done with 7 months ago. Can't we have something a bit more interesting and relevant, or is this the calibre of journalist on this site?
235 Go to commentsNot sure what the Welsh are moaning about. They’ve had far more players off England, than England have had off Wales. Guys like Josh Hathaway and Kane James will play for Wales in the end. And they’ll be fsr better players for having played in the Gallagher Premiership, than they ever would have been had they stayed mired in the shambles that is Welsh rugby.
4 Go to commentsThis is all being blown totally out of proportion. First of all, since half the Irish team isn’t Irish - it’s very likely that none of the Irish players said that at all and, thus, we’re not being arrogant. Second, since half the Irish team is Kiwi - it’s very likely the Kiwi players were predicting a NZ SA World Cup final. Which they got spot on. Good on them!
163 Go to commentsAha. An Irishman with logic! Follow the flow: - Ireland peaks with a >80% win record between 2020 and 2023. And then… - crashes out of another QF at the WC; - Beat a poor French Team; - Beat 6N wooden spoonists Italy; - Play shite against eventual wooden spoonists Wales; - Lose against the most boring, “the worst English team ever” , a team widely regarded as unable to attack; - scrape through against Scotland. This article, No - Trimble, is on the money! Except for one glaring statement: _The Springboks have a few aces in the hole in this debate being the reigning world champions and official world number ones_ There is no debate, boys and girls. There it is. In black and white. “Reigning World Champions and OFFICIAL world number ones”. Come July, the overrated Andy Farrell and this overhyped team are going to enter into a world of hurt.
90 Go to commentsI’d like to know what homoerotic events Daniel enjoyed at 8th man. I clearly missed out!
19 Go to commentsThis article is missing some detail, like some actual context or info about what led to him abusing the ref.
2 Go to comments*They used to say that football is a gentleman sport watched by hooligans and rugby is a hooligan sport watched by gentlemen. How times have changed.*
3 Go to commentsexcept ot wasnt late wasnt late at all so dont know why you all saying its late he commits early and its your fault fir not paying attention
30 Go to commentsNot sure the Bulls need another average utility back in their ranks. Chamberlain has been ok for the Sharks but is by no means an X-Factor player. Bulls bought several utility backs which they barely use. A typical example would be Henry Immelman who plays mostly Fullback. The Bulls however have rarely played him this year and he has played wing or centre. Bulls want to build depth but seems like they have too many surplus players
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