Ilona Maher And USA Rugby Take Center Stage In DC Before World Cup

It’s a massive rugby weekend in Washington, D.C. Fresh off her ESPYS win for Breakthrough Athlete of the Year, Ilona Maher was named in the USA Women’s Rugby squad for the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup taking place in England from August 22 to September 27.

Maher and her teammates will play one last game on U.S. soil before traveling to the U.K. The Women’s Eagles face Fiji on July 19th at Audi Field as the first act in a CBS Sports broadcast doubleheader that also pits the USA Men’s Eagles against England.

The test match doubleheader has been a year in the making and is part of World Rugby and USA Rugby’s efforts to lay the foundation for successful Olympic games and Rugby World Cups in 2028, 2031, and 2033.

The D.C. Doubleheader

The USA women will go into the game feeling they should win. The Women’s Eagles are ranked 9th in the world, while Fiji are ranked 15th, but the Americans will not be taking the team from the South Pacific lightly.

“I think we’re just really excited,” prop Catie Benson told me after the team’s final training session. “It’s been a tough, hot, muggy day, 10 days, and I think we’re just really excited to show all of our work that we have done throughout the whole campaign and also what we’ve been doing in the offseason.”

Benson will be heading to her third Rugby World Cup in a month and is eager to make sure the team gets on the plane having put on the best possible show for the fans. “We want to be quick out there and fast out there,” Benson said. “Fiji is a very physical team, and they have crazy offloads. So I think we’re just trying to shut all that down and just play our game.”

Meanwhile, the men will be going up against the English juggernaut — a formidable opponent even if some of their star players are currently touring with the British and Irish Lions. Ranked fifth in the world, England are heavy favorites going into the game and are coming off of a series victory against Argentina.

Eagles Head Coach Scott Lawrence is anticipating a strong challenge from the English. “I think playing against a team like England, the pace of the game is about building robustness in the players as they move from Major League Rugby to test rugby,” he told me at the USA Rugby Golden Gala. “I think that’s important. It’s one step in that journey of building the type of international players that we want to have long term, leading into World Cup qualification and the World Cup.”

For England, this game against the USA, and their wider tour is about building squad depth ahead of the 2027 Rugby World Cup. Debutant Joe Carpenter is looking forward to the match. It’s his first time playing in the U.S., and he will get to do it in front of a packed stadium with the chance to go home with three away victories out of three. “It’s massively exciting,” said Carpenter after a light training session. “We know it’ll be a tough test tomorrow, so to come away with a win and 6 new caps will be really great…I think there’s been about 10 or 11 new caps this tour and that boosts competition for the shirt.”

The Ilona Maher Effect

Maher will be starting the match against Fiji as the women look to get a final victory before heading to the World Cup.

The native of Burlington, VT, has been instrumental in the growth of rugby on and off the field. Maher is the most followed rugby player in the world on social media, and she uses that platform to preach the same message she delivered in her ESPYS-winning speech: “Strong is beautiful, strong is powerful. Sexy is whatever you want it to be, and I hope more girls can feel how I feel.”

The sevens turned fifteen-player is also a wrecking ball on the field. She helped the USA women’s sevens team secure bronze at the 2024 Paris Olympics, which led to her ESPY win. In her victory speech, she was sure to thank her teammates, noting, “I’m a team sport athlete and my teammates are the reason I am the way I am. I love them so much. They truly are the reason I am up here on this stage.”

Teammates, like Catie Benson, are fully supportive of Maher and her actions to raise up women everywhere. “I think it’s just made us better,” Benson told me after training. “I think the energy that she brings to the team and the spotlight, everyone kind of just feeds off it. It’s cool because now more people just know rugby.”

Benson also noted that this week the team has walked around the capital and been recognized because of Maher, something that just a few years ago would have been unprecedented. “We’re walking around D.C., and people are like, oh, USA Rugby. It just creates more of a cloud around us. So it’s just more attention to the sport. She’s been amazing. Everyone’s been amazing. It’s good.”

It is not an exaggeration to say that Maher is inspiring an entire generation of women and girls, some of whom have no interest in rugby but love her messages about strength, power, and positivity.

“It was important for me to go to the ESPYS,” Maher told select media at the USA Rugby Golden Gala. “The ESPYS are a big thing in America. It’s the first time rugby was nominated. So, it was important for me to go and to win as well.” Now with the ESPYS in the rearview mirror, Maher is fully focused on the tasks at hand, Fiji and then the World Cup.

The Women’s Rugby World Cup

The USA women will face hosts England in the opening game of the World Cup on August 22nd, before taking on Australia and then Samoa. It is an extremely tough group, but the squad assembled by Head Coach Sione Fukofuka blends experience, power, and energy. The women will hope to build on the excellent performance of previous generations and make another deep run at the World Cup.

Benson is realistic about the team’s prospects, noting, “You know, it’s a tough group, but I think the work that we’ve been putting in with each other, we can really show some of our strengths. And I think we can do a lot of good things when we’re out there.”

Maher and Benson have both spent significant time playing in England, and Maher for one is excited about returning. “I’m so excited to go back over there,” she told me. “I loved it. I loved the people, the culture, everything like that, the love of rugby that they have. I’m really excited to be there and I’m excited to play against a lot of my teammates. I think England is going to do the World Cup right. The way that they’re setting up, the way they’re promoting it. And I think this is going to be a stepping stone for women’s rugby. So, I’m really pumped to be a little bit a part of it and hopefully help in any way I can.”

Sellout Crowd at Audi Field

The doubleheader in Washington, D.C. is expected to be a sellout with fans pouring in to see four exceedingly talented teams. For Benson, who has been an international since 2015, the prospect of playing in front of 20,000 American fans is a dream come true.

“It’s kind of mind-boggling, I think when we walked up the [stadium tunnel] stairs, we just saw the stadium,” Benson said smiling. “We’re like, oh, this is so cool. Just the fact that it’s a sold-out crowd and we get to play in front of our family and in front of our friends. I think that’s so huge to a lot of us just so that we could have that extra support right before we head into the World Cup.”

After so many years of fighting for a place in the limelight, both the men and women will have a chance to shine on July 19th in the nation’s capital. All they need to do is deliver a spectacle that captivates a new set of American rugby fans.