Ilona Maher: ‘Nervous’ rugby star makes Bristol Bears debut

BRISTOL, England — Ilona Maher admitted she was crammed with nerves forward of her Bristol Bears debut however believes she has taken a step ahead in adjusting to the 15s format of rugby as she performed 20 minutes within the Bears’ 40-17 defeat to Gloucester-Hartpury in entrance of a report crowd at Ashton Gate on Sunday.

Maher, who received Olympic bronze within the girls’s sevens with the U.S., is focusing on a spot within the USA Eagles squad for the 2025 Rugby World Cup. To assist that aim as she swaps the short-form sevens format of the game for 15s, Maher has signed a three-month take care of Bristol the place she goals to impress forward of the World Cup in England later this 12 months.

If Bristol fall wanting making the playoffs in Premiership Girls’s Rugby (PWR), then she has solely obtained six matches to impress. The primary of these got here on Sunday as she obtained her first expertise of PWR as a Sixtieth-minute substitute for Reneeqa Bonner. However her time on the ball was restricted, as Bristol struggled to maintain tempo with the back-to-back PWR winners.

“I used to be undoubtedly very nervous,” Maher stated. “I believe the coach [Dave Ward] was like, ‘okay, you are going to go on after 60 minutes.’ I used to be like, ‘okay, we positive?’ I simply needed to do my teammates proud and present that I deserved to be on the market.

“However as soon as I did get on the sphere, I simply felt like, that is rugby. It is one thing I have been doing for the previous 10 years now. It is one thing that is in my blood. So I felt actually assured once I obtained there, but in addition to my teammates who’re always speaking to me, like Jazz Joyce always telling me what she wants. It makes me really feel I can play to one of the best of my capability. Now, as I get extra snug, I believe I will be in additional moments and be ready to place myself into extra areas.”

Maher’s final rugby motion was to assist the U.S. safe their first ever medal in rugby on the Olympics again in August. Throughout Paris 2024 she offered behind-the-scenes entry within the Olympic village and grew her social media following, which stands at round 8.1 million throughout her numerous platforms, establishing herself as by far the most-followed rugby union participant on the planet.

Because the finish of the Olympics, Maher’s life has been a whirlwind. She introduced a number of new model partnerships whereas her merchandise shows her mantra “magnificence, beast, brains.” She was the quilt star for the Sports activities Illustrated Swimsuit version in October and completed second on “Dancing with the Stars” on the finish of November.

Maher was welcomed to Bristol at first of December, introduced to the gang on the Bristol Bears males’s staff’s match in opposition to Leinster, greeting them with a royal wave.

“She’s given everybody an enormous raise,” Holly Aitchison, the Bristol and England fly-half stated on the time. “Anybody with that sort of profile goes to place eyes on the sport, which may solely be a superb factor for us.”

Maher then returned to the U.S. to fulfil numerous business and TV duties and arrived again at her short-term dwelling at first of 2025. Her star energy meant Bristol Bears acquired unprecedented demand for tickets forward of Sunday’s match. They normally play at Shaftesbury Park — a floor with a capability of two,000 of which 250 is seated — however they moved it to Ashton Gate, the 27,000 robust stadium, in anticipation of Maher’s debut.

Maher final performed the XV-a-side format of the game in 2021, however the star energy was evident at Ashton Gate: digital camera crews following her each motion, supporters proudly displaying her title on the again of her shirts, and an attendance of 9,240 all desperate to catch a glimpse of a rugby celebrity.

“Sevens is a battle, I really feel like 15s is usually like a battle,” Maher stated afterwards. “There are such a lot of moments. It was powerful on the market. For me, I used to be simply making an attempt to look at and perceive, pondering, what do I must do once I get in? And I believe every recreation I am simply gonna study increasingly. And also you do study so much by shedding, however it additionally places a hearth underneath you for the following recreation.”

Pre-kick-off, and even throughout the early levels of the sport, the cameras had been educated simply as a lot on Maher because the on-field motion. Although she began on the bench, there was the inevitable subplot of the gang, and sport, ready for her introduction.

Her positional versatility meant she might have featured probably within the back-row, within the midfield and out vast on the wing. Ultimately, Bristol and Maher opted for the latter possibility, as she began her brief spell on the Bears on the precise wing. However in her 20-minute cameo, she was much more busy in defence than with ball in hand, as Gloucester-Hartpury ended up snug victors.

“[My] instincts are the identical, however it’s extra just like the construction that you just actually have to know because the transferring components are simply so totally different,” Maher stated.

“In Sevens there are loads of 1v1s. I get previous this particular person, I am fairly dwelling free. In fifteens there’s one particular person working right here, you are working behind, you might have three folks in entrance of you, you are pondering, is that the most suitable choice or ought to we exit the again? So there’s a lot, so many extra transferring components that I’ve to nonetheless sort of perceive and study.”

Maher signed autographs and took pictures with the followers contained in the stadium for over an hour after full-time. It was a report attendance for a Bristol Bears’ girls’s dwelling match, and Maher hopes her fame and fan base will hope develop the sport.

“It is actually essential for me to attach with them — they are not simply the following era of rugby gamers however the subsequent era of followers. What’s cool was that there have been loads of girls on the market. In males’s sports activities, you might have loads of male followers — particularly in rugby — it is a boy’s membership. You could have loads of previous males going to their staff’s recreation. Can we now get extra girls shopping for our jerseys and coming to our video games?

“Girls have energy, girls have affect and so they’re a superb fanbase to have.”