{"id":3170,"date":"2025-07-18T13:05:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T13:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/3170\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T13:05:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T13:05:08","slug":"ilona-maher-and-us-rugby-seek-breakthrough-with-sell-out-dc-doubleheader-ilona-maher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/3170\/","title":{"rendered":"Ilona Maher and US rugby seek breakthrough with sell-out DC doubleheader | Ilona Maher"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the ESPY Awards in Hollywood on Wednesday, Ilona Maher was named<\/a> Best Breakthrough Athlete.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s taken me seven years and two Olympics but I finally broke through,\u201d the 28-year-old US Eagles center, social media sensation, swimwear model<\/a> and reality TV star<\/a> said, with a delighted laugh.<\/p>\n

USA Rugby knows such attention is to be seized. After all, Maher\u2019s presence against Fiji at Audi Field in Washington on Saturday explains the 20,000 sellout for a program that also includes the Eagles men against England.<\/p>\n

Out in LA, Maher told her celebrity audience: \u201cPSA, there is a Women\u2019s Rugby World Cup this year. Probably a lot of you didn\u2019t know the biggest event in women\u2019s rugby, starting in about a month. Watch it. Tune in. You\u2019re not gonna understand it the first time you watch it, you\u2019re not gonna understand the second time either. But just keep watching.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a long way from the Dolby Theatre, where they also host the Oscars, to the Stadium of Light in Sunderland, in the English north-east. But that is the venue for the first game<\/a> of the World Cup, on 22 August, US against the hosts. The Eagles rank ninth in the world, England first. For the Americans, Saturday\u2019s game against Fiji, ranked 15th, is a precious preparative test.<\/p>\n

Jetlag be damned, Maher will play her part. On Thursday, at the USA Rugby Golden Gala, a fundraising dinner down by the National Mall, she told the Guardian: \u201cI got in [from LA] at like 7am and then I got in my car and went right to the field, and then practice started at 8am and then I did the gym and I did two-hour practice out in the heat.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I am tired. I\u2019m ready for bed \u2026 club soda tonight. It was important for me to go to the ESPYs. It\u2019s a big thing in America, this is the first time rugby was nominated, so it was important for me to go and win as well. I\u2019m happy I \u2026 got to say my part, which is the message I always continue to say.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the ESPYs, Maher said: \u201cStrong is beautiful. Strong is powerful. It\u2019s sexy, it\u2019s whatever you want it to be. And I hope more girls can feel how I feel.\u201d<\/p>\n

The same night, back east, the rugby clans of DC and representatives of Saturday\u2019s teams gathered at the British Embassy on Massachusetts Avenue, for a reception hosted by Peter Mandelson, ambassador to the court of King Donald.<\/p>\n

Pronouncing himself \u201ca great rugby fan\u201d, Lord Mandelson said: \u201cIt\u2019s a magnificent contest of force and skill \u2013 just like politics. And rugby union: I emphasize that word \u2018union\u2019 because your sport is incredibly unified. It really brings people together \u2026 just like politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Polite laughter ensued. Alan Gilpin spoke next. As chief executive of World Rugby, he has placed a big bet by placing the 2031 and 2033 World Cups on American soil. Saluting USA Rugby\u2019s 50th birthday, Gilpin said: \u201cThis is a perfect moment to honor those not just who are playing now but those who are laying a trail and creating a bold new future.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd let us be clear, these Rugby World Cups in the USA will not just be historical games. They\u2019ll grow the game\u2019s reach, they\u2019ll grow the game\u2019s impact, they\u2019ll grow the game\u2019s values, not only here in the US but across the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attempts to persuade American sports fans continue. Representatives of CBS Sports were among those enjoying the canap\u00e9s and champagne.<\/p>\n

Among the delegations of players, the American men were led by Nate Augspurger of Chicago, the English by George Ford of Sale. Augspurger won his 51st cap last week, on the wing in a disappointing defeat by Spain<\/a> in Charlotte, North Carolina. Further south, in San Juan, Argentina, Ford won his 101st cap for England, directing from fly-half as his men completed a series win despite missing 15 men in Australia with the Lions.<\/p>\n

Augspurger saluted Major League Rugby, the US pro competition which recently completed<\/a> its eighth season, as \u201cthe breeding ground for our new USA Eagles\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven on this tour right now, we\u2019ve already had six new caps and we\u2019ll have a few more coming in [on Saturday] as well,\u201d Augspurger said, of a squad which also includes players sourced around the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a guy who\u2019s been around a long time \u2026 it\u2019s just about leading by example, showing them the way. The great part is we\u2019re getting a professional-standard athlete into the Eagles now. For a long time, that wasn\u2019t always the case \u2026 and that gives us all the confidence and growth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ford said: \u201cWe\u2019ve got players away with the Lions, [but that gives others] a chance to push themselves forward. We had a good couple of wins [in Argentina]. There were difficult challenges, but we\u2019ve worked really hard to make sure that we\u2019re on the right side of the scoreboard. So we\u2019ll be looking to do that again this week against the USA, which we know is going to be a different challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

The England coach, Steve Borthwick, has named three uncapped players in an XV retaining only three men from last weekend. According to Borthwick, Gloucester lock Arthur Clark, Bath center Max Ojomoh and Sale full-back Joe Carpenter \u201chave earned their chance through their effort and attitude [as] we aim to keep building the squad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three uncapped players sit on the bench: Gloucester fly-half Charlie Atkinson, Harlequins center Oscar Beard and Bristol hooker Gabriel Oghre.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, at the Golden Gala, Eagles coach Scott Lawrence told the GuardIan his team had no illusions about the task ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201dPlaying against a team like England, the base of the game is about building the robustness in the players to move from Major League Rugby to Test rugby \u2026 It\u2019s one step in that journey of building the type of international players that we want to have long-term, leading into World Cup qualification.\u201d<\/p>\n

Counseling realism from US fans (a group used to outright fatalism, most years) Lawrence said \u201ca lot of things are happening under the water but they take \u2026 two to three years to come to fruition before you see the investment actually realized.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the Embassy, the Guardian stepped aside for a word with Bill Goren, the USA Rugby chief executive. Delighted to contemplate a sell-out crowd \u2013 even in the infernal heat and storms of a DC sweat-box summer \u2013 Goren said: \u201cWhen I took this job, I saw the opportunity that was in front of us with the World Cups, with the Olympics [sevens, in Los Angeles in 2028], with the momentum that the women\u2019s teams were having, as well as the World Cup that the men are going to qualify for.\u201d<\/p>\n

That will depend in the first instance on the Pacific Nations Cup later this summer, as Lawrence\u2019s Eagles seek to avoid the fate of the 2023 vintage, who failed to make it to France<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Goren continued: \u201cIt\u2019s exciting to be here in DC, having both teams on the field, a sell-out. A full weekend of events like this is a showcase for rugby in the US, not just USA Rugby.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recent reports have depicted outside interests eyeing the US, whether for implanted Super Rugby teams<\/a> or as part of R360<\/a>, the putative breakaway league championed by Mike Tindall, World Cup winning England center turned entrepreneur.<\/p>\n

At the embassy, Goren chose his words \u2026 diplomatically.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re aware of everything that\u2019s going on. When there\u2019s a rumor, I\u2019ll follow up with it, understand what the landscape is, how it impacts us, where we\u2019re going to support and not support at times. I do all of that. I don\u2019t let it pull me down, getting involved in rumors and that type of stuff.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I need to do is just keep pushing our team forward, because there\u2019s an opportunity for our four teams to get better and stronger. There\u2019s more tools. We\u2019re not going to just stop and wait for something to happen. We continue to drive forward every day. Let\u2019s put on good games on Saturday. It\u2019s going to be great.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the ESPY Awards in Hollywood on Wednesday, Ilona Maher was named Best Breakthrough Athlete. \u201cIt\u2019s taken me…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-3170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}