Nievas will become the first woman to referee a competitive men’s international game in Europe.

By PA Sport Staff

Rugby union history will be made in Helsinki on Saturday when Spanish female referee Alhambra Nievas takes charge of a men’s international match between Finland and Norway.

It will be the first time a woman has refereed a competitive men’s international game in Europe.

The Conference Two of Rugby Europe fixture sees the 34-year-old follow female officials in other sports such as Sian Massey-Ellis, who was the first Premier League assistant referee, and Bibiana Steinhaus, who refereed in Germany’s Bundesliga.

Reflecting on Nievas’ appointment, Wormen in Sport chief executive Ruth Holdaway told The Daily Telegraph: “It builds on the momentum created over the summer where we saw viewing figures, victories and the visibility of women’s sport at an all-time high.

“It’s a real breakthrough as rugby is traditionally a male-dominated sport.”

Ireland’s Joy Neville, meanwhile, will referee the men’s match between Norway and Denmark later this month, and she will be an assistant official when France face Japan in Lens on November 25.Sian Massey-Ellis officiates in the Premier League (John Walton/Empics)

Nievas’ involvement in rugby began when she started playing for her university team. She has gone to referee such games as the Olympic women’s sevens gold medal match in Rio last year.

“The most important thing is not to be the first, but that this continues and that we keep moving forward,” Nievas told the Telegraph.

“It is an honour and I appreciate the compliment and trust in my ability but, if this is only one match, I won’t be happy.

“This is a way to change our system – that this opportunity is open to more females interested in having refereeing careers.”

The 2016 champion survived a very tricky match against Hsieh Su-wei

By Eleanor Crooks, Press Association Sport Tennis Correspondent, Melbourne

Title favourite Angelique Kerber withstood the unique challenge of Hsieh Su-wei to move into the Australian Open quarter-finals.

Hsieh plays a completely different game from most of her rivals, relying not on power but a mixture of spins and slices and ball placement that bamboozle opponents and frequently drive them to distraction.

Her scalps in Melbourne had already included Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza and Agnieszka Radwanska, and for a long time it looked like Kerber might join them.

But the German has a deep well of confidence after her unbeaten start to the season and kept her composure to turn the match around and win 4-6 7-5 6-2.

The 2016 champion seemed close to losing it as Hsieh continued to spin her magic late in the second set, and the Kerber of last year would surely have crumbled.

But this is a different model and she let out a huge scream of joy and relief after sending a forehand winner down the line to level the match before racing quickly through the decider.

In the last eight Kerber will face US Open finalist Madison Keys, who has played superbly so far this fortnight and blasted her way past eighth seed Caroline Garcia, winning 6-3 6-2.

Keys, who hit 32 winners compared to just nine for her opponent, said: “I’m feeling really good. I feel like I’m playing just solid, consistent tennis. I think today was a good example of that. I served well. I returned well. But I don’t think I played unbelievable. I think I just played really solid and smart.”

The 22-year-old has long been marked out as a potential grand slam winner but her first final experience in New York last summer was something of a horror show as she won just three games against friend Sloane Stephens.

“To have such a great two weeks and then have it end the way that it did, it was really devastating for me, so it definitely took some time to get over,” said Keys.

“More than that, it was realising that it was so unexpected, and I was so happy to even get there in the first place after having such a rough beginning of my season, that after telling myself that a couple of times I definitely finally moved on and just wanted to put myself in the same position again so that maybe I could have a different outcome.”