A viral sensation, a financial necessity - why Maher became rugby's biggest star

Ilona Maher is not the best rugby player in the world.

She is big, strong and fast, with deceptively good hands. But she is not, by her own admission, the best.

"I'm amazing at rugby, but realistically I'm maybe not the best at it, which is fine," she told Rugby Union Weekly.

"There are so many great athletes like Portia Woodman [New Zealand's two-time Olympic gold winner] and Maddi Levi [Australia's world sevens player of the year].

"But I have something else I can bring, which is personality."

That "something else" is something else.

Because Maher is a social media Jonah Lomu. Her numbers accelerate upwards, with eight million followers and counting clinging to her shirttails.

She is rugby's great unicorn.

While the sport's suits warn gravely about demographic collapse and the need to connect with a younger audience, a 28-year-old sevens player from a nation where rugby is barely a blip on the radar has apparently cracked it.

She is the biggest rugby player ever, of either gender, online, thanks to funny, sassy posts advocating for femininity in all forms, body positivity and Olympic village flirting.

She has been on the cover of Sports Illustrated and profiled by Forbes.

In the past few months, she has been taking part in Dancing with the Stars.

Casting the US version of Strictly Come Dancing isn't the bargain-bin, back-end-of-the alphabet rummage of some other countries either.

On that side of the Atlantic, the A-list hit the floor. In previous series, boxing legends Evander Holyfield and Floyd Mayweather have danced (not together), NFL hall of famer Jerry Rice did a cha-cha-cha and World Cup winner Hope Solo was paired up and voted off.

This year was Maher's turn.

And next year, it is England's turn.

In January Maher will start a three-month contract with Bristol Bears in Premiership Women's Rugby.

If that goes well, she will be back in August for the Rugby World Cup in which the United States take on England in a blockbuster tournament opener.

Before all that though, her first task has been to turn followers into friends, meeting her new team-mates for the first time.

England prop Hannah Botterman has already been giving her lifts around Bristol and Maher name-checks Wales wing Jasmine Joyce-Butchers - an old sevens adversary - and England pair Holly Aitchison and Abbie Ward as other stars she is looking forward to playing alongside.

"Here is this girl coming in, playing sevens, from a dance show, joining their team and they have been so nice and welcoming," Maher added.

"To be with some of the best players in the world, who play such a crisp game that I would love to play, I just know I am going to learn so much from them. I hope I am going to get up to that level."

On the pitch, it will be a learning curve for Maher. She last played 15-a-side rugby in 2021, having concentrated on sevens which, with Olympic status, is better funded in the United States.

But some of her team-mates will be learning from her too.

Maher, who has a master's degree in business, realised early on in her rugby career that the bottom line of her bank account was going to be closely linked to her social media follower count.

"I have had to do it in a different way," she said.

"Rugby is my thing, but I have had to create this whole other thing around me.

"Being on the pitch is amazing, but as a female athlete, as a female rugby player, I have to do 10 times as much off the field.

"I can't just play the sport I love. I'm not going to make millions playing rugby, I'm not even going to make six figures playing rugby - that's the sad truth.

"I'm not going to be like a men's player - I can't put all my focus here. I have to put it into everything else as well and somehow that's translated into being the biggest star in rugby because of my personality."

Rugby has traditionally shied away from such individualism, valuing the team above memes.

But Maher says it can't afford not to get involved in the self-promotional social media hustle.

"I think rugby is, in many ways, stuck in the old ways - on the field you have just got to work and that's where it stops," she added.

"But we have to grow as the world changes and as society changes. We want to get more players into the game - where are those players? They're on TikTok. They're scrolling the apps, they're watching my little videos and going 'oh, look at this girl play rugby'."

When this girl actually does play rugby for Bristol is not yet decided.

She will be at Bristol's match against Exeter this weekend.

The clash with last season's champions Gloucester-Hartpury on 5 January has been shifted from 200-seater Shaftesbury Park to 27,000-capacity Ashton Gate due to "unprecedented demand", even though Maher is quick to stress she is unlikely to be ready to make her debut then.

Maher the player might not make an appearance, but Ilona the personality will. And, with stand selfie snaps a possibility, that is perhaps three-quarters of the draw.

"If I am what gets them in the door, awesome, but I hope that the rugby being played is what makes them stay," she said,

"Come for the Tik Tok girl, but stay for rugby which will be on par with the best."

Bristol, Rugby World Cup organisers and the whole of rugby will be watching, learning and hoping that invitation is answered.