Kristin Bitter: 'I kind of had this whole new identity as a rugby player'

Life happens. That is the phrase that bounces around the head of Kristin Bitter when she thinks about her rugby journey.

Just over a year ago the 24-year-old did not know if her international career was going to continue. Now she is just six weeks removed from her first Women’s Rugby World Cup campaign with the USA Women’s Eagles and is Leicester Tigers’ first choice fly-half in Premiership Women’s Rugby.

From virtually the moment Bitter picked up a rugby ball aged 16 she walked into USA age grade setups. When she played for collegiate rugby powerhouse Dartmouth University, to the best of her memory, she only missed out on a starting place once in four years.

In March 2023 she made her Test rugby debut against Spain, but by her own admission had never fully committed to rugby and, after a 40 minute cameo against Italy in WXV 2, life got put on pause when her mother was diagnosed with cancer at the end of 2023.

Bitter had not been playing regular rugby since her graduation in 2023. Combined with the emotional strain of her mother’s illness things came to a head at an Eagles training camp in the UK at the start of 2024.

It was the newly appointed Eagles head coach Sione Fukofuka’s first training camp in the role and with Bitter’s mind firmly lodged at home in San Diego, she failed to make an impression. The Californian was not invited back to an international training camp for the remainder of the year.

“I just stayed home in San Diego so I could be with my family while my mom went through treatment,” Bitter told RugbyPass. “I even applied to normal jobs. I went to college. I have a degree.

“Months went by and I hadn’t heard back from anything. I was like ‘dang, now I’m just unemployed and not playing rugby’. So, I started playing touch rugby. Which is important to this story because before I was playing rugby and I hadn’t really fully committed to it.

“I started playing touch and I really, really liked it. I can’t remember the last time I truly had true joy from playing a sport. So, I played a lot of touch and got super fit from that.

“At the beginning of this year I was invited to a talent ID camp. Luckily it was down the road and the past six months of playing touch had made me so much faster and fitter. It also really helped my decision making.

“I came to this camp, and I felt like I was running circles around people. I had never really felt that before. I kind of had this whole new identity as a rugby player.

“Luckily Sione was there and he noticed the change in me. My mom had gotten better, so I was feeling good. And I was like, okay the World Cup is this year.”

In the months that followed Bitter worked hard. She gave herself every opportunity to gain selection for the Women’s Rugby World Cup. Despite not being selected for the Pacific Four Series, she was not discouraged, dedicated every waking moment to honing her craft, led the Denver Onyx to the maiden Women’s Elite Rugby crown and finally made a long-awaited return to international rugby against Fiji in Washington DC last July.

Even going into her selection meeting with Fukofuka she was not 100 per cent certain if she would be skipping across the pond with her teammates. Next thing Bitter knew she was on the bench against the Red Roses at the Stadium of Light for the tournament opener.

In her team’s group stage exit the playmaker made another appearance from the replacements against Samoa. It lit a fire beneath her.

 

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“I was sitting on the bench, looking at the likes of Ellie Kildunne, Zoe Harrison, Emily Scarratt was out there – some world class players,” Bitter recalled “Then I looked at us and I was like, so are we. And so am I, right? I was also wearing that jersey.

“For some reason the nerves went away. I think that’s why, when I did go on, I really just stopped paying attention to who was in front of me. I felt like I played freely and just did me.

“I just had this confidence that I deserved to be there. Going forward, I’m really excited for that the future holds. But one thing is, you can’t have confidence without earning it.

“There’s still a lot of work to do. Still a lot of things I want to work on myself. I find it quite exciting. I love going to skills and just doing catch-pass or kicking. Give me my tee and a bag of balls, you’ll make my day.

“I really have found joy in working on my craft because I know that I can grow so much as a player.”

The Women’s Rugby World Cup could well be the start for Bitter. Her motivation to win a Test jersey again has never been higher.

She has plenty more things still to achieve. The fly-half has never started a game for her country. The tournament is coming to US soil in 2033.

To continue the development of her skills, Bitter joined Leicester as part of wholesale changes at Mattioli Woods Welford Road.

Put in contact with the East Midlanders by her Eagles teammate Tess Feury, it is the perfect place to push the boundaries of her game further and realise a long-held ambition to play elite domestic rugby away from home.

To date she is yet to taste victory in a Tigers jersey. Her side opened up their season with a loss to Sale Sharks and experienced the same fate a week later against Bristol Bears.

Since her return to the Eagles set-up at the start of 2025, Bitter has already seen a significant change in the way that she plays the game. Her speed and fitness has renewed her confidence to carry the ball more and be a more unpredictable property in the No.10 jersey.

So far as Bitter’s development is concerned PWR is the perfect place to sharpen her tools against some of the best players in the world on an almost weekly basis.

 

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“I knew they were looking for a 10 and I’m a 10,” Bitter smiled. “But I still feel like I have to fight for selection. When they send out the team sheet I do not expect my name to be on it.

“It is a good opportunity to work on my skills in a full-time programme. It is important and something that I struggle to find back home. Just having posts to kick at, in the US you don’t really find that.

“Being able to take the reins and just go out there and something I need, to do that against the other starting 10s in PWR. One of my goals I say to myself every time I walk off the field; I want to be the best 10 on the field that day.”

Bitter jokes that the main thing she is getting used to in England is the weather. Born and raised in Southern California, she is not overly accustomed to wet weather or British winters. Calling on her time at Dartmouth and the New Hampshire weather to remind herself that she will be able to persevere.

It is no secret that Leicester have embraced an underdog mentality. They are the only PWR team without a Red Rose, but even so boast a number of senior internationals among their ranks.

She may have even walked into the toughest job in the league. With Meg Jones and Francesca McGhie having left for Trailfinders Women, Amy Cokayne and Charlotte Fray for Sale, the club recruited a number of squad players from other PWR teams and the cream of the amateur game.

Led by new head coach Ross Bundy, it is a club with plenty of room for growth. Growth that could make the team’s opening two losses seem like a distant memory by the season’s end.

A heavy 74-0 loss to Bristol before their first bye week of the season has left Bitter and her teammates with plenty to ponder. For Round 4 things will not get much easier.

On Sunday, Tigers travel to a Saracens team that have won two games in a row and sit second in the table. A far cry from their opening weekend loss to Gloucester Hartpury several weeks ago.

“After the Bristol game we were super disappointed and that was felt across our entire team,” Bitter said. “We all agreed that wasn’t us. We weren’t even close to hitting the standards we know we can hit.

“You have to acknowledge the loss. You can’t just ignore it. But at the same time, you can’t dwell on it. You learn, you make your adjustments and you set new goals. At the end of the say every single game starts at 0-0. It’s basically what you can do in those 80 minutes.

“There’s a quote I really love; the most dangerous man in the room is the one who has nothing to lose. That’s the mentality that we need to have when we come to Saracens or when we’re at home.

“We have that grit that you need as a team at the bottom of the table and then having the character and determination to climb your way up it.”