Hollie Davidson to take charge of Glasgow Warriors v Benetton in landmark moment for Scottish referee

Hollie Davidson will take charge of her first Guinness Pro14 match ton Saturday after the Scottish match official was appointed to the game between Glasgow Warriors and Benetton Rugby.
Hollie Davidson will referee her first Pro14 match. Picture: Ross Parker/SNSHollie Davidson will referee her first Pro14 match. Picture: Ross Parker/SNS
Hollie Davidson will referee her first Pro14 match. Picture: Ross Parker/SNS

Davidson is the latest product of the Pro14’s elite referee pathway and follows in the footsteps of Joy Neville in becoming the second female official to be appointed to a fixture.

The 28-year-old had been due take charge of the European Challenge Cup match between Newcastle Falcons and Castres in January in what would have been her first men’s professional referee appointment. But the match was called off when the European competitions were postponed due to travel issues around Covid-19.

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Davidson played scrum-half for Scotland at under-20 level and became a professional referee in 2017.

She has featured regularly as an assistant referee at Guinness Pro14 matches and worked at the Women’s Six Nations.

Greg Garner, elite referee manager of Pro14 Rugby, said: “Our elite referee pathway has greatly improved in recent years thanks to the efforts of our unions working together and it is very rewarding to see Hollie Davidson earn the right to make her debut on Saturday.

“This pathway has been put in place to identify match officials with the potential to referee at Test level and as a result we have now seen Andy Brace (IRFU) and Mike Adamson (SRU) appointed for Guinness Six Nations games this season.

“In addition, Joy Neville (IRFU) has also performed the role of TMO in Round 1 of the Six Nations.”

Neville was TMO at Twickenham on Saturday when Scotland beat England and flagged up the incident which saw Finn Russell yellow-carded for tripping Ben Youngs.

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