THE AMERICAN DREAM

World Rugby is hedging its bets on the USA revolutionising rugby with World Cups in 2031 and 2033. But breaking America has never been that easy...

- Words ALEX SPINK

SWELTERING DAY in Washington and they came from far and wide to wave off the USA team bound for England and the Women's Rugby World Cup. The biggest crowd to witness a women's International in the States packed Audi Field, where Wayne Rooney once played and later managed MLS team DC United.

Then the screaming began. They were there supporting a team ranked tenth in the world but it was Ilona Maher, the sport's most followed player, most had come to see. Rugby is a team game but in US sport, star appeal is what sells.

Three days earlier, the US Eagles centre had delighted her eight million social media disciples by going to Hollywood and picking up a sporting Oscar, the high-profile ESPY award for Best Breakthrough Athlete. In a nation where rugby is very much a minority sport, thousands stayed behind afterwards for a closer glimpse of Maher, who toured the perimeter posing for selfies and high-fiving each and everyone.

Alan Gilpin, chief executive of World Rugby, looked on approvingly. He had been at the Tokyo Olympics, delayed a year due to the pandemic and held behind closed doors in the summer of 2021, when a colleague tapped him on the shoulder. “Have you seen this American sevens girl doing all this stuff on TikTok, taking the mickey out of cardboard beds in the athletes’ village, comparing the village to the villa on Love Island?”

Gilpin smiles at the memory.

“I didn’t know who Ilona was back then,” he admits. “We all do now. She’s the biggest driver of brand rugby in the US.”