{"id":83032,"date":"2025-08-20T18:17:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T18:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/83032\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T18:17:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T18:17:07","slug":"ilona-maher-to-start-team-usas-rugby-world-cup-opener-vs-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/83032\/","title":{"rendered":"Ilona Maher to start Team USA\u2019s Rugby World Cup opener vs. England"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ilona Maher has been named in the starting lineup for the United States\u2019 opening game of the Women\u2019s Rugby World Cup against England on Friday.<\/p>\n

Maher, capable of playing as either a centre or a winger, is set to make her first World Cup appearance after making the switch to the 15-a-side format. The 29-year-old has represented the U.S. in rugby sevens at the Olympic Games and helped the team win a bronze medal in Paris last year, the nation\u2019s first Olympic medal in the sport.<\/p>\n

15-a-side matches are over four times longer than the sevens format, with regulation time lasting 80 minutes compared to 14.<\/p>\n

In December 2024, Maher joined the Bristol Bears of Premiership Women\u2019s Rugby (PWR), the highest level of women\u2019s rugby in England, on a three-month contract with the aim of securing a place in the World Cup squad. She appeared in eight games for the team and scored four tries.<\/p>\n

The American is one of rugby\u2019s most famous figures and has 8.8million followers on Instagram and TikTok combined, making her the sport\u2019s most-followed player. She achieved viral fame on social media behind-the-scenes in Tokyo in 2021 and was named on Forbes\u2019 30 Under 30 list in December.<\/p>\n

Over 9,000 fans watched Maher\u2019s Bears debut against Gloucester-Hartpury, breaking the PWR attendance record. The fixture was moved to Ashton Gate, the home of soccer team Bristol City, due to the incredibly high demand for tickets.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s cool to be the face of a sport that isn\u2019t thought of as a women\u2019s sport,\u201d Maher said after the match<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s a men\u2019s sport. So to be the face of it and also the impact I\u2019m having is felt across both men\u2019s and women\u2019s (rugby), I\u2019ve had some of the best men\u2019s players in the world be like, \u2018Keep doing what you\u2019re doing\u2019 because I think everyone sees value in it. And if one rises, we all rise.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really proud of what I\u2019ve done and the impact I\u2019ve had on social media, not just in a rugby sense, in a body-positivity sense, the way people are treating themselves. So I\u2019m proud. I think my family is 10-times prouder.\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.S., who are coached by Australian Sione Fukofuka, have historically enjoyed success at the World Cup. They won the first edition of the tournament in 1991 and were runners-up in 1994 and 1998. Known as the Eagles, the team were knocked out in the quarter-finals by Canada in their last appearance at the competition in 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cEngland are World Number 1, and we expect them to be physical, accurate and confident for the full 80 minutes,\u201d Fukofuka said in a statement on the side\u2019s website<\/a>. \u201cThey have a strong set piece and threats across the field, however we are confident we also have a strong set piece platform with threats to attack them with confidence and have the commitment in defence to give us opportunities to create pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe team have worked hard to be here and earned their opportunity to represent the United States at the World Cup. Our intensive selection process, followed by the camps at Mt St Mary\u2019s and Loughborough University have required the players to dig deep and work hard to make the team, so being here is a testament to that work ethic and commitment.\u201d<\/p>\n

England are hosting the World Cup for the second time and finished as runners-up in 2022, losing to New Zealand in the final. The opening match of the tournament will take place at Premier League club Sunderland\u2019s Stadium of Light and kicks off at 2:30pm ET (7:30pm BST) on Friday.<\/p>\n

(Scott Taetsch\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ilona Maher has been named in the starting lineup for the United States\u2019 opening game of the Women\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83033,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,11880,10018,760,85],"class_list":["post-83032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-global-sports","tag-olympics","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83032","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=83032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}