'We were lit up by the fans': Ilona Maher

Ilona Maher hopes the Women’s Eagles have won over new fans after a record-breaking crowd of 10,518 attended their opening match against Canada in the 2025 World Rugby Pacific Four Series at the CPKC Stadium in Kansas City. It was the highest attendance for a USA Women’s match in America.

Their North American rivals may have won the match 26-14, but the Women’s Eagles put in a dogged performance against the defending PAC4 champions, who are ranked second in the world.

Despite defending for the majority of the match and conceding 78 per cent territory, the match was tied at 14-all with just 10 minutes remaining, only for Canada to find another gear and rack up a 10th consecutive win in the fixture.

It was still some turnaround from the previous year when Canada put 50 points on the Women’s Eagles, and Maher says the crowd played their part in being the ’16th person.’

“It was awesome, I think we were kind of, in a way, lit up by the fans. There were 10,500 people out there, and you could feel the energy. Even when we made a mistake, they were all with us. We wanted to put on a show for them,” she said.

“I felt so good. I mean, I think it gave us that extra push. We kept hearing the USA chants. No matter what we did, people were behind us, and we wanted to give them a good game. I think we did. I think we showed them what women’s rugby is, and we kind of let the Midwest experience it.”

Maher’s presence as the trailblazer of women’s rugby played a factor in helping to sell the game, but the sevens convert, who lined up in the centres on Saturday, hopes that more people come along to watch all the great athletes on show throughout women’s rugby.

The 28-year-old from Vermont is banking on Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 in England in a few months being a catalyst for growth in all the participating countries.

“I can’t be the only one, I think we have to do more to get more fans in. I am so honoured they come to see me, but they have to realise we have so many other great athletes that they can take a look at. And I hope that this World Cup, you know, brings more superstars to the front, not just me, but players from the USA, players from Australia, Canada, England, you know, and that we start to build momentum.”

Territory

43%

32%

6%

19%

25%

Territory

75%

While the USA kept things close on the scoreboard and were ruthlessly efficient in converting two of their three visits into the Canadian 22 into tries, Maher hopes that they’ll be able to show up more as an attacking force when they play Australia in their next PAC4 game at the Gio Stadium in Canberra, on May 17th.

“I think, for us, it’s not playing so much defence, we need to keep that ball, we let go of it a bit too much, we didn’t get to play many phases, and we didn’t get to show what our attack is like,” she admitted.

“We have such powerful runners, we have a lot, so when we do have those opportunities to play, we’re going to be really unstoppable.”

The USA beat the Wallaroos 32-25 when the sides met in last year’s PAC4. It was their first win in seven in the competition and the most points they have scored in a PAC4 match.

Maher anticipates that it could be another high-scoring encounter, with hopefully plenty of attacking rugby.

“I know they have a lot of sevens girls back who I’ve played before, so it’ll be interesting,” she said.

“It’ll be a tough game, because they also like to keep the ball alive, and they like to move it. They have some very powerful runners, and I think we’ll need to unlock our attack to stand a chance.”