'Nervous' Ilona Maher reacts to Bristol debut, difference playing 15s

Social media sensation Ilona Maher admitted that the nerves kicked in as she made her much-anticipated Bristol Bears debut in front of a record crowd.

While second-half substitute Maher was unable to affect the result – a 40-17 Ashton Gate defeat against Premiership champions Gloucester-Hartpury – she still proved a huge hit.

American back Maher has more than eight million followers across Instagram and TikTok, making her the world’s most followed rugby player.

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Maher’s mere presence generated a Bristol record crowd of 9,240 for a women’s game – and league-highest for a standalone fixture – with the 28-year-old having a 20-minute introduction off the replacements’ bench.

She spent more than an hour after the game signing autographs and posing for pictures – some fans travelled from Kentucky and Washington DC – underlining the impact she will continue to make throughout her three-month stay in the west country.

Fixture

PWR

Bristol Bears Women

17 - 40

Full-time

Gloucester-Hartpury Women RFC

All Stats and Data

“I was definitely very nervous,” Maher said.

“But then I think I wanted to make my team-mates proud and show I deserved to be out there. Once I did get on the field I felt like ‘OK, this is rugby’ it is something I have been doing for the last 10 years now, it’s in my blood.

“I didn’t feel nervous pre-match or this morning. It wasn’t until I was on the bench. I think it’s almost more (nervous) to be a sub, because you think ‘maybe I will touch the ball once and I won’t mess it up’. But once I got out there I was pretty calm.”

Maher made her presence felt in a couple of rucks and looked for work off the wing, but she could make little impact to the overall picture as Gloucester-Hartpury dominated the second half.

Maher won Olympic sevens bronze with the United States in Paris, but she had not played 15s since 2021.

She is hoping to reacquaint herself with the format in a bid to gain selection for the USA squad that will travel to the England-hosted World Cup later this year.

“It is very different from sevens,” Maher added. “Sevens is a battle and 15s is a war, it carries on in so many moments.

“I think it was tough out there. For me I was just trying to watch and understand. I think each game I am going to learn more and more, and you do learn a lot by losing, but also it puts a fire under you for the next game.”

Maher’s arrival had underpinned a considerable increase in replica shirt sales, while Bristol’s Instagram following has risen from 21,000 to 67,000 since her signing was announced.

She rose to fame on social media through combining messages of body positivity and female empowerment with her signature sharp sense of humour, while she was also runner-up on Dancing with the Stars – the American equivalent of Strictly Come Dancing.

“I was just trying to promote the game as much as possible,” she said. “To get 9,240 people out there, that’s so cool.

“They might have come out here to watch me play, but come more to see the level of rugby you are going to see. You are now seeing that the level of women’s rugby is getting better and better each year.

“It is really important for me to connect with them. They are not just the next generation of rugby players, but the next generation of fans.

“What’s cool was that there were a lot of women out there. In men’s sports, you have a lot of male fans – especially in rugby – it’s a boys’ club.

“Can we now get more women buying our jerseys and coming to our games? Women have power, women have influence and they are a good fan-base to have.”