Rugby history to be made at Thomond Park on Friday night

Scotland's Hollie Davidson takes charge of her first Guinness PRO14 game while former Irish international Joy Neville will be on TMO duties for the meeting of Munster and Benetton.

Tue, 16 Mar, 2021 - 16:46

Colm O’Connor

Rugby history will be made on Friday night at Thomond Park when both the referee and Television Match Official roles are filled by female officials.

Scotland's Hollie Davidson takes charge of her first Guinness PRO14 game while former Irish international Joy Neville will be on TMO duties for the meeting of Muster and Benetton.

It will be the first fixture in a top-tier men's professional club rugby league to have two females officiating.

Davidson is the latest product of the Guinness PRO14’s elite referee pathway and follows in the footsteps of Neville in becoming the second female official to be appointed to a Championship fixture.

This appointment comes after Davidson’s initial debut was pencilled in for Round 11 fixture between Glasgow Warriors and Benetton Rugby, which was postponed due to severe weather conditions.

The 28-year-old is highly accomplished and after playing scrum-half for Scotland at Under 20s level she set her sights on becoming a professional referee and reached that milestone in 2017 as Scotland’s first full-time match official.

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 this Friday after the disappointment of the postponement a few weeks ago.

“The elite 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 Rounds 1 and 4 of the Six Nations.

“It is also ground-breaking for the sport that Joy has been selected as the TMO for the game. We have a competitive group of referees now and it is great to see younger officials pushing through looking to hold the whistle on the biggest occasions."