USA Rugby superstar Ilona Maher has had enough of the narrative that women’s rugby has changed the game and the idea that it’s “gone soft”.
After noticing many comments claiming “game's gone” in reference to Women’s rugby, Ilona decided to address the negativity on Instagram.
“I saw this a couple of times on my post with the Black Ferns, and a lot of it was from what looked like young boy rugby players,” she began.
“You say ‘game's gone’ or that the ‘game's gone soft’ - here’s the deal, we’re not men’s rugby, we’re different.”
Ilona shared that the women’s side of the sport is taking a different approach to the game.
“In terms of the ‘game's gone’, we’ve sold 300,000 tickets to the Women’s Rugby World Cup this year. In America, a country that historically isn’t the biggest rugby fan, we just set an attendance record with 10,500 people in the stands.”
So actually the game’s just growing - the women’s game is just getting better!
Our Black Ferns squad quickly jumped in the comments to back Ilona, writing: "Louder for those at the back 🗣️💯."
Ilona explains how her time in New Zealand has shown a different side of rugby and the on-field rivalry vs off-field friendships.
“The reason I post with the other teams and I’m not afraid to do the posts is because we know, as rugby players, that we can be the best mates off the field, but when we go on the field, we’re gonna be out there trying to play our hardest.”
“It doesn’t take away from who we are. As women’s rugby players, I think what makes us so special is the personalities we have, the people that we are, like that’s how we're growing the game.”
Fans get to connect with us and see us in such a different light than they do men’s players, and I’m proud of that.
We saw this during Ilona’s time hanging out with Portia Woodman-Wickliffe here in NZ ahead of their match on Saturday night, where the Black Ferns smashed the USA side 79-14.
The two showed their friendship in a press conference where our web girl, Maia, got Ilona to share some of the Kiwi slang she’s learnt during her visit.
Ilona also spent some time with Kiwi content creators Louis Davis and Te Aorere Pewhairangi trying a delicacy straight from the ocean - kina!
Despite having tried it from a container before, Illona hasn’t had the sea urchin in the shell.
To be fair, she’s braver than I am for giving it a go. Her facial expressions didn’t look like she loved it, but she did admit, “It’s better from the shell”.
“It’s like the ocean on a spoon,” she said.
What a champ!
