Holly Wood (Myers)

From the age of 6, I grew up obsessed with netball, and when I say obsessed, I really mean it. From being a primary school kid, I used to demand an in-depth post game analysis with my mum in the car on the way home from matches. From the age of 10, I volunteered as my mum’s team statistician, and would give grown women playing Division 1 netball, their post-match defensive and attacking statistics, whether they welcomed it or not. I became a C award netball umpire at the age of 13 and umpired women’s games twice a week, along with being an extremely passionate (and probably very annoying) Captain to my netball school team from Year 6 all the way to Year 13. 

Growing up and living in Dubai, we were spoilt with the level of sport and opportunity. The majority of expats are made up of Brits, South Africans, Kiwis and Aussies, all obsessed with sport and performance. The weather allowed us to compete in the sun all year round and the majority of coaches were retired ex professional sportspeople. The role models were endless and the competitive environment never stopped.  

I didn’t pay much attention to rugby until I was 14 years old. My grandad is an ex professional rugby league player, so I suppose rugby was in my blood. It wasn’t tapped into until my mum, 36 years old, said she was going to start playing rugby. My mum hurdled for GB in her youth and had broken the GB relay record with her team, with her being the 3rd leg. Following athletics, she was an accomplished hockey and netball player. At 14 years old, I didn’t know that rugby existed for women until I watched my mum play for the first time, and I thought, ‘I want to do that.’ The next week, myself and a friend rallied the netball and basketball girls from school and we set up the first ever girls team at Dubai Exiles RFC and drafted in my brother to be our coach. We played against teams in Al Ain, Bahrain, Kuwait and Doha. As a girls’ team, we remained undefeated, until we turned 17 and a couple of us decided to go on a play in the women’s team and the others discovered boys.

I continued to balance playing netball and rugby until I left school, which wasn’t an issue as training and netball matches were on different nights to rugby training, and rugby matches were on the weekend. When I reached 17 years old, I was invited to train with the Arabian Gulf Senior Women’s 7s team (now disbanded and is UAE Rugby). I spend the first few months of training being terrified, but eventually after a tour to Thailand, some beers were drank, and I started to settle in the team. We went on to play in Dubai 7s and Hong Kong 7s, and I still keep up touch with some of those ladies.

I had been accepted to study History and Politics at University of Portsmouth and before leaving, my mum brought me a brand-new pair of rugby boots, along with ASICS Netburners and told me I could only play one sport at university so it was time to choose. When I walked up to the netball stand at fresher’s fair, the girls had fake eye lashes and hair extensions in and I glanced over to the rugby table where they were offering free pints of snakebite. It was an easy and natural choice to make. I sold the Netburners on eBay a week later for more snakebite money. 

Fast forward 10 years from making that decision at fresher’s fair, my life has revolved around rugby and shaped the person I am today. I’ve lived and breathed it, just like I did netball as a kid. I played rugby for my university, along with a couple of local clubs. In my last year, I decided to see what this rugby league malarkey was about and much to my grandad’s delight, I got selected to play for England in the Rugby League World Cup 2013. I played for Richmond RFC for 4 seasons, winning Premiership and National Cup titles and then headed out to Australia to play for Waverley RFC and subsequently Waratahs 7s. Back to blighty, I played 3 seasons at Harlequins FC and finished off with a cut short COVID-19 season with Stade Toulouse Feminin in France in the Top 16. 

Like the majority of female premiership rugby players, I’ve always worked alongside playing. I think I always took, what that’s taught me as a person, for granted. I never really gave a second thought to the amount of money I was spending to supplement my hobby, or the late-night muddy training sessions, early starts at work and squeezing in gym sessions. This is especially apparent when I spent 4 years travelling up and down the A3 from Portsmouth to Richmond, 3 times a week. You do it because of the innate desire to succeed and the love of the sport. When I step back, reflect and think about the level of commitment I showed for so many years, it does make me proud and has taught me the importance of using time effectively and dedicating time to things that you love and enjoy. 

When I played in France last season, I had decided quite early on that that would be my last season of rugby. I’ve suffered a few big injuries over the years; torn both ACLs, torn MCL, torn both meniscus’, along with a shoulder reconstruction with a fractured collar bone, completely detached labrum and a fractured socket. Again, having injuries, although you go into sumps of self-pity, it definitely teaches you the art of resilience in order to get back to full fitness. Unfortunately, it does take its toll on your body and when my other shoulder started subluxing at the start of the French season, I didn’t particularly fancy undergoing a fourth major joint reconstruction. Plus, I had gotten to the tender age of 27 and started to realise there was more to life than rugby; I knew I was still young enough to start playing a decent level of netball again and I had always fancied giving triathlons a go.  

COVID aside, plans for retirement took a bit of U turn in October 2019 when my then boyfriend, now husband, Emmerson, started rugby refereeing and subsequently booked me onto a course on a weekend I didn’t have a match. I’ve always coached rugby but never gave refereeing a second thought, which was odd really as I absolutely loved netball umpiring growing up. I instantly fell in love with it and like umpiring, it came to me quite naturally. With spare weekends and before the first national lockdown in March 2020, I had refereed 5 matches, had started to be mentored by trailblazer Claire Daniels, and had been assessed twice. 

Unlike women’s rugby, rugby refereeing has no gender. You’re not a ‘women’s rugby referee’, you’re treated the same as the male referees where you predominantly referee male matches because there’s more volume compared to women’s matches, you get the same amount of travel expenses at society level, and same pay for matches as you move higher up the levels. In fact, I believe you’re more likely to do well as a female referee if you are good enough and work hard because there’s not that many of us, therefore you’re more noticeable. Having spent so many years in the shadows of playing rugby in a male dominated environment, funding yourself to play premiership and for your country, refereeing is a place in our sport where you are equal and I think that needs to be talked about more as a missed opportunity. 

I moved back to the UK from France in the height of lockdown and on the job hunt. I joined a platform called LAPS: Life After Professional Sport; a company that supports elite and professional athletes transition into the working world. Coincidently, they were recruiting for roles within the company which I applied for one and was successful. I work as their London and South Partnerships Manager, and it’s great that so many of the people working for LAPS have lived and breathed that transition, so able to understand what our members are going through it and have context behind why we do what we do, when securing partnership and sponsorship deals with businesses. I work 4 days a week for LAPS, all working from home, they fully support my refereeing ambitions and my desire for a work/life balance, so I have that extra day to referee when we are allowed to play out again.

I was selected to join the South group for the RFU’s Advanced Match Official Award that started in December 2020, despite only having extremely limited experience. The RFU support ex-players wanting to get into refereeing on an almost accelerated path, similar to that transition and success that Karl Dickson has experienced. I’ve been quite vocal when talking to my friends and family about my refereeing ambitions. Unlike the thought process of a lot of referees first starting out, success to me is refereeing on World 7s Series, being offered an RFU contract, and refereeing top flight men’s and women’s matches, to the same dizzy heights as the likes of Joy Neville, Sarah Cox and Hollie Davidson. I suppose that’s another thing I can thank a life of top flight rugby for; always striving to be the best of the best and second place is never good enough. 

Lastly, I was asked to make comment on my most memorable and funniest rugby moments on and off the pitch. I honestly believe I could write a book on what actually happened on ‘those tours’, which I might consider one day if I have a successful refereeing career. My best rugby moment has to be scoring an interception try at The Stoop for Richmond in the 2016 premiership final against Saracens and subsequently going onto lift the title. The girls who were part of that season, know how solid and together that team was and it will always hold a place in my heart. Playing 7s in front of 40,000 fans at Allianz Stadium (now known as Sydney Football Stadium), in Sydney with three of my best mates in 2016 was also unreal, mainly because Australian rugby fans genuinely love watching women’s sports and the noise and cheer was deafening. Funniest moment was the 2014 Dubai Rugby 7s pitch invasion, all those involved from Pink Babas, Pie and Pint Pilgrims, and the infamous Predators, with the capture and release and the eventual ban. If you know, you know.