Advantage Over: Holly Wood talks refereeing, bumps, babies and attracting elite players into whistling

In this episode of the Advantage Over podcast, I’m joined by Holly Wood. Rugby World Cup 2025 match official and referee across the men’s and women’s leagues here in England. In this episode, we chat about her elite performance background, her route into refereeing, her first pregnancy journey and the legacy from that process for other female referees around the country.

We also went on to chat about the PWR High Performance Referee programme she has been developing with the RFU and PWR to attract elite players across into refereeing.

This weekend, Holly referees the 2026 PWR (Premiership Women’s Rugby) final between Saracens Women and Trailfinders Women – congratulations!

Resources mentioned:

• RFU Match Official Maternity guidance
• High Performance Referee Scholarship with PWR

If you have any comments about this episode, or suggestions for future shows, then drop me a line at ref@rugbyreferee.net!