I grew up loving rugby, but never realised playing it could be an option for me. Instead, I stood on sidelines and watched my brother (playing) or my Dad (refereeing) whilst getting the occasional soaking. Even whilst watching games on the TV, Dad tended to referee it from the sofa so despite not playing and only classing myself as an occasional viewer, I had a reasonable grasp of the laws.

After many years of persuasion I was finally encouraged to pick up the whistle, receiving my ELRA certificate in January 2018. As it happened, my first game of rugby ended up being part of Bath Rugby Foundation’s International Women’s Day Tournament- a quarter pitch under-15 girls O2 touch game on The Rec. There cannot be many referees who can say their first game was on a Premiership pitch and I feel very lucky!

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed travelling around Gloucestershire refereeing the whole range of different teams- boys, girls, men, women- and was promoted by Gloucester & District Society to Level 10 early in 2020. It says everything that my ideal weekend now includes a game on both Saturday and Sunday with plenty of time afterwards in the bar!

I have many highlights already, including occasions where I’ve been able to work in a team of three with my Dad on Premiership Academy games, but the one that stands out was acting as 5th Official for England vs France during the 2019 Autumn Women’s Internationals at Sandy Park. It included a tremendous amount of paperwork both during and afterwards but nothing beats lining up between the two teams for the national anthems in World Rugby kit!