"Missin that corner" - Ilona Maher expresses excitement ahead of her appearance at Rugby World Cup

Ilona Maher shared a heartwarming picture with her teammates as she expressed missing playing ahead of the 2025 World Cup, slated for August 22 - September 27, 2025. Maher came fresh off receiving a major ESPY honor and anchoring the US women's team to a win against Fiji in their final home match of the season in Washington, DC.

Ilona Maher competed at the 2024 Paris Olympics with the US Rugby Sevens squad and earned bronze, the first podium for women's rugby in US history. Following that, she signed a three-month contract with the PWR team, Bristol Bears, and played through March 2025, before rejoining the US team ahead of the most anticipated Rugby World Cup.

Maher and her team played their final home match against Fiji in front of a record audience at Audi Field on July 19, 2025. She posted a thunderous tackle to obstruct the last Fijian attack and brought the win home 31-24. Now, as the 28-year-old and her team head to the 2025 Rugby World Cup, she posted a picture with Georgie Lilly-Perris-Reding, Charli Jacoby, and Gab, making her feelings known about missing playing.

"Missin that corner," her caption read.

The US Rugby announced the women's rugby roster for the World Cup on July 18, 2025, celebrating the 50th anniversary of US Rugby in Washington DC. 330,000 tickets have already been sold - way more than the previous women's World Cup total.

Ilona Maher won the ESPY Best Breakthrough Athlete in the 2025 edition

Ilona Maher at the 2025 ESPYs - Show - (Source: Getty)

Ilona Maher has not only made strides with her flair on the field, but also with her body positivity advocacy. Her efforts in promoting women's rugby the past year and contriibuting to her team's historical performance at the Paris Games was recognized by the ESPYs this year. After winning the award, she thanked her teammates for their love and support to help her achieve great success.

"I did it. I did it the old-fashioned way. Wrote on a piece of paper, loser. Um, okay, I'm so honored. Thank you so much. It's taken me seven years into Olympics, but I finally broke through. Amazing stuff. Um, I know it's just, just me up here, but I'm a team sport athlete through and through, and my teammates are the reason I am the way I am. Um, I love them so much. Um, they truly are the reason I am up on this stage," Maher said after winning the award.

The most-followed rugby player on social media, Ilona Maher, represented the United States at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, three years after debuting in the National team in 2018.

About the author

Agnijeeta is a US Olympics journalist at Sportskeeda. She holds a Master’s degree in English and has worked as a school teacher, a blogger, a content writer and a sports writer over the past 5 years. A lover of high-adrenaline track and field events, she was also a sprinter during her school days.

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone happens to be her favorite Olympian, and the athlete’s feat of breaking four records within 13 months inspires her, apart from the American's body language on and off the track. Grant Hackett swimming with a partially dysfunctional lung and winning gold in Athens is her all-time favorite Olympic moment.

Agnijeeta believes that deriving of unique angles from podcasts and interviews carried out by Olympics.com, along with hype-building of potential Olympic events on social media can help fill the coverage gap during the off season.

When not at her work desk, Agnijeeta likes to sing and paint. She also plays string instruments like guitar and ukulele and is an avid player of word puzzles.

Know More

Edited by Agnijeeta Majumder