Ilona Maher: Changing the game for good

Attendance records have been rewritten since Ilona Maher joined Premiership Women’s Rugby but the American superstar insists that this is just the start.

A remarkable 9,240 people showed up at Ashton Gate for Maher’s Bristol Bears debut against Gloucester-Hartpury, before Exeter Chiefs attracted their biggest attendance of the season for her full debut last weekend.

With more than eight million followers on Instagram and TikTok, the American is the most followed rugby player on the planet and is already transforming the women’s game.

But with a stunning solo try against Chiefs, she showed that she has just as much to offer on the pitch.

And after so much interest in her early weeks in Bristol, Maher believes there is a lot more to come.

She said: “It is great having all these record numbers, but what we want is for them to keep coming back for the next game. One and done is not enough.

“I am sprinkling a little bit here. But we need people to keep coming. It is not just me alone.

“There is something special happening not just in England, but around the world in women’s sport and women’s rugby. My message is if I am what gets someone to experience rugby, then great. I want more people to play and watch.”

With the World Cup coming up in England this summer, Maher has big plans to keep capturing the imagination.

But she does not want it to be a solo mission – hoping that a host of other female players can follow her lead and make the competition a transformative one for the sport, just as the Olympic Games in Paris last summer did for her.

The Olympic bronze medallist added: “I went into Paris knowing I had the chance to make myself and went in with a plan to post loads of videos. This was one time I could make myself. I made myself because of a seven-day tournament in the Olympics. We have to capitalise on that too at the World Cup, which is an eight-week tournament.

“Can we go into the World Cup with a plan for players to post more videos? It’s not easy, sometimes it’s uncomfortable to show your personality and post these videos.

“I want to show you can do both – post funny little videos but also play really well. I love that Bristol Bears understand that. We all have a responsibility to capitalise on this World Cup.”

Having arrived on a three-month deal, Maher played a big part as Bears won away to Exeter Chiefs last weekend, to move within three points of the top four.

The next three weeks could be crucial for their play-off ambitions, as they take on Leicester Tigers, Trailfinders Women and Loughborough Lightning, needing to win each one.

Win each of those, and the final two games against fellow play-off contenders Harlequins and Exeter again, could serve as knockout games for last year’s PWR runners-up.

That would only draw more people to the sport, with Maher optimistic that those who do discover rugby for the first time, realise just what makes it so unique.

She added: “What’s really special about rugby is that a sport where women are encouraged to express themselves to the highest level. It’s special how we are not told to tone it down in this sport. Be as strong as you can, be as fast as you can. I think that is something that sometimes women are not told to do.

“The sport has told me what my body is capable of, it welcomes so many different body types. It shows there is a place for everyone on the rugby pitch.”