Holly Wood began her refereeing after a successful career as a player. In collaboration with our partners at ACME Whistles, we met up with Holly to chat about her route into refereeing, what motivates her and why female representation in rugby is so important.
Having a unique perspective, going from player to referee in 2020, we first asked if being a player previously makes you into a better referee, Holly said: “I think ex-players have a bit more empathy as refs.
“I think we’re able to progress quicker because we can read two plays ahead of what’s going on, whereas if you’re coming into it with no playing experience or if you haven’t played to a very high level, you don’t have that experience of reading the game.
“You’d have to spend a good few years refereeing to in order to build that sort of experience.
“I think some people disagree and think ex-players don’t make better refs but in some cases, I fully believe that it’s true
“Though there is no accelerated pathway, there are some good example of ex players becoming referees are now performing at the highest level.
“We’re also already conditioned for that level of high performance and the fitness demands, we know our bodies very well, we know how to prepare for games.”
Refereeing hasn’t always been considered an elite level athletic role, we asked Holly if she was surprised by the intensity going from playing to refereeing:
“No, it wasn’t really a surprise.
“I actually think there’s a lot more pressure on you as a ref than there is when you’re playing.
“There’s no hiding place when you’re a referee, so you have to have something about you in order to deal with the pressure. And that comes with working and being able to cope in a high performance environment.
For more information on refereeing and to get started, visit www.acmewhistles.co.uk