Referees Corner – Issue12 – 2025/26 – Lions

Welcome to another edition of Referees Corner. Today’s match official for this Round 17 clash between Leinster and the Fidelity Securedrive Lions is Hollie Davidson. She is assisted by Keane Davison and Stuart Gaffikin of the USRFR. John Carvill is the 4th official, Brendan Conroy is the 5th official. Mark Gargan will be today’s Stats Official and Gordon Condell the TimeKeeper.

Hollie Davidson became Scottish Rugby Union’s first full time professional women’s referee in 2017. She refereed her first Pro14 fixture on 19 March 2021; a Munster v Benetton match, winning plaudits from the Munster Head Coach Johann van Graan. Davidson has refereed in the 2019 Women’s Six Nations Championship and in 2021 Davidson was chosen as one of the referees for the rugby 7’s tournament at the delayed 2020 Summer Olympics. In 2023 Davidson was the only female member of the panel of referees for the 2023 World Rugby U20 Championship. She was also appointed to be an assistant referee in 3 full international warm-up matches for the 2023 Rugby World Cup. This season alone she has refereed in the URC, Top 14, EPCR Challenge and Champions Cup, and the Six Nations. This is her fourth time refereeing Leinster and it is always great to see her in action.  

Congratulations to John Dunne of Portarlington RFC who was recently elected as President of the Leinster Rugby Referees at our Annual General Meeting. John has been a long time member of the association serving as a local area representative for the North Midlands as well as many roles on the Referee Committee. He recently worked with the referees in the A and B Panels of the association supporting appointments, coaching and evaluation. This election is recognition for many years of dedication to the Leinster Rugby Referees.

Also we extend our congratulations to our referee Robbie Jenkinson. Robbie has been rewarded for his excellent refereeing performances over the last couple of years with an IRFU Professional Referee Contract. Robbie joins Andrew Brace, Eoghan Cross, and Peter Martin on the High Performance Referee panel. We look forward to seeing Robbie’s continued progression over the coming seasons. 

The annual dinner of the Leinster Rugby Referees is the highlight of our social calendar and is always a great event. It took place in the Clanard Court Hotel in Athy presided by Brendan Conroy on April 11th. During the dinner our annual awards were handed out.  There are six main awards, one for lifetime achievement, referee of the year, high performance referee of the year, referee who progressed the most during the year, one for club of the year and the inaugural MacDonald/De Lacy Educator Award was also awarded.

This year we introduced a new annual award that recognises those who make an outstanding contribution to the education and development of referees within Leinster. It honours the mentors, coaches, evaluators ,and educators who strengthen our refereeing community year after year. We are grateful to David MacDonald and the DeLacy family, in honour of their husband and father Tony DeLacy, for agreeing to lend their names to this prestigious award. We also acknowledge the valued sponsor of this award who wishes to remain anonymous.

The winners of the awards for 2025/26 season were as follows:

• Harry Ardil Referee of the Year – Ezequiel Roldan Oliver (Lansdowne FC)
• MacDonald/De Lacy Educator Award – Barry O’Keeffe (Co.Carlow RFC)
• Ham Lambert Lifetime Achievement– Ciaran O’Brien (Railway Union RFC)
• Club of the Year: De La Salle Palmerstown RFC
• Alain Rolland Award – High Performance Referee of the Year – Kevin Beakey 
• Denis Collins Referee Progression Award – Euan O’Riordan (UCD RFC)

Well done to our deserving winners, photos of the event can be seen on our website www.leinsterrugbyreferees.ie.

Want to get involved? 

Referees provide a vital function in servicing all levels of the game. Refereeing is also a fantastic hobby and is increasingly becoming a genuine alternative to playing the game.

Whether you have aspirations to referee at the highest level or to referee locally, there is a place for you. There are excellent support structures in place to develop referees and a thriving social aspect too.

Feel free to make contact with the Leinster Rugby Referees at brendan.conroy@leinsterrugby.ie  If you are interested in becoming a referee get in contact with us through our Facebook, our website www.leinsterrugbyreferees.ie,  through X @leinsterreferee or instagram @leinsterreferees1.