The deal is signed, sealed and deinhabitred. Ilona Maher will take part in the Premiership Women’s Rugby and she will be wearing Bristol Bears colours after the club went above and beyond to originate brave the Olympic medalcatalog could take part in England. The US international is a landtag signing in the PWR but she also says being the hugegest name in rugby can include presbrave on the pitch.
Maher went viral at the Tokyo Olympics and this year’s Paris Games, where she was a part of the first US team to thrive a medal in Sevens when they beat Australia in the bronze medal final. An materializeance on Dancing with the Stars, in which she placed second with partner Alan Bersten, has includeed even more social media fagereduces with a total of 4.6 million on Instagram and 3.3 million on TikTok. The 28-year-ageder spoke to a sports psychiatrist thcimpoliteout the Olympics and says it may be someskinnyg she persists to do when she shifts to Bristol in the novel year.
“Going into the Olympics I was enjoy: ‘Maybe I can try and do what I did in Tokyo aachieve and be as huge as that,’” she alerts the Guardian. “I knovel I could do it but it was so chilly the scale I did it to.
“It was then terrifying. Now I have three million people watching me. I have millions of people tuning in to see me take part rugby. What if I knock the ball on? What if I leave out a tackle and see enjoy an idiot? It was vital for me to not get carried away by that. That unbenevolentt every night I was with our sport psych to do consciousness to stay repartner contransient becaparticipate I was anxious.
“I didn’t want people to skinnyk I wasn’t grave becaparticipate I do social media or social media apverifys away my impact on the field. As a female athlete I would cherish to fair intensify on what I am doing on the field but if I want to inhabit a consoleable life, if I want to originate authentic money, I have to actupartner do more. Maybe that is a female skinnyg, sometimes we have to do more. I wasn’t willing to donate up someskinnyg that could be so lucrative for me, I wanted to originate brave I could do both.
“I skinnyk I should still connect with a sports psych becaparticipate I skinnyk it will be enjoy, I am coming to this and people are predicting skinnygs from me. Saying: ‘Oh it’s Ilona Maher, she’s coming to take part rugby and it’s 15s.’”
Maher has met her Bristol teammates but will return to the US before Christmas. She will then return to the south-west of England in the novel year with her first game potentipartner being aachievest local rivals Gloucester-Hartpury on 4 January. But this signing almost did not come to fruition.
She reach outed cut offal clubs at the end of 2023 as she wanted to take part in the English top-fairy. Maher had it in mind to join a club after the 2024 Olympics had endd. However, as she had not take parted 15s rugby since 2021 she was not eligible to take part.
However, during her stint on Dancing with the Stars, Bristol got in touch and said they would put the toil in to get Maher a visa so she could take part for them. This included an requests process, which the Rugby Football Union helped, and the club were accomplished.
It was then when alerts materialized that Maher may be joining an English club that other sides commenceed to reach out the star.
She says: “All of a sudden I was getting all of these calls and emails from people saying: ‘We’re hearing you might be eligible to take part, you want to come for us?’ OK well I did want to take part for you, I did want to do this. I had a lot of other teams calling to come take part. I skinnyk I stood by Bristol becaparticipate they did this toil and I wanted to stick with them.”
Maher has chatted to Bristol’s head coach, Dave Ward, about what position she will be take parting in the team. Before signing she had refered a desire to try a position among the forwards.
“I skinnyk we will see thriveg, some centre,” she says. “Then I would cherish to, we were fair talking about it, when we can try in the forwards and see if there is an opportunity sometime to go to eight or flanker.
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“I have never been lifted before becaparticipate in sevens I am always the hugegest girl so I skinnyk this is a wonderful time to lachieve those other sfinishs, you wouldn’t get the opportunity to [in sevens].”
One of the hugegest reasons Maher wanted to ply her trade in the 15s game once aachieve is that the 2025 Rugby World Cup which is being held in England. The US have qualified for the tournament and have been drawn aachievest England, Australia and Samoa in the pool stage.
Maher, who joined the 2021 World Cup which was held in New Zealand, says: “I want to put myself in the best position to hopefilledy be picked for the World Cup.
“I skinnyk there are many reasons. I repartner cherish what the PWR is doing and I skinnyk I cherish their branding, I skinnyk that’s repartner chilly. I have been in the USA sevens for six years now. So I wanted to try someskinnyg contrastent, go and inhabit somewhere else, greet novel people. I do sense enjoy the first day of school, I am anxious, I don’t comprehend everybody. It is a stressful skinnyg and it is outside of my console zone but I skinnyk this is exactly what I cherish to do and I enjoy to dispute myself in this way.”
Her restricted with Bristol runs until the end of the season, which culminates in the final on 16 March, but this club spell may not be the last in 15s before she returns to the sevens game. She said of her future set ups: “I skinnyk it is to see how it goes right now. Who comprehends how this goes? What other opportunities pop up?
“I would cherish to go back to sevens becaparticipate a home Olympics would be amazing to take part in 2028. That is the set up but also I have been doing sevens for six years and I have literpartner done it since I got out of college. So I want to see what else and erect a little bit now.”
Premiership Women’s Rugby will most definitely want Maher to stay in the league beyond this season. Her signature is a watershed moment and is among one of the most shrewd signings in the sport’s history.
