Record crowd and fireworks herald Ilona Maher’s debut – here’s how she fared
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The pre-match fireworks display was English rugby’s way of welcoming its latest superstar. Ilona Maher, the most followed rugby player on social media and now a cult heroine in the sport, is officially an adopted Bristolian. Bristol marked the occasion in front of a 9,420-strong crowd – a new record for a standalone Premiership Women’s Rugby game – and they greeted her arrival on the hour mark with an ear-splitting roar. Gloucester-Hartpury might have pooped on the American’s parade, but it did not stop Maher from signing autographs for more than an hour after the match. This was a rugby debut on a celebrity level.
“It’s really important for me to connect with them – they’re not just the next generation of rugby players but the next generation of fans,” said Maher. “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 boy’s club. You have a lot of old men going to their team’s game. Can we now get more women buying our jerseys and coming to our games? Women have power, women have influence and they’re a good fanbase to have.”.
Earlier, in the warm-up, cameras trailed her every move. Such is this woman’s supersonic profile that the club has recruited a social media specialist to chronicle her journey in Bear country. You wonder, deep down, what her team-mates – some of whom would never have played in front of a crowd this big – made of it all.
