Getty Image / Alex Ho/ISI Photos
Hot off her runner-up finish in DWTS which was preceded by a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics, Rugby’s biggest star Ilona Maher has signed with the Bristol Bears Women in the Premiership Women’s Rugby league. Currently, the Bristol Bears sit in 4th place on the Premiership Women’s Rugby table at 5-0-2 through 7 matches and it didn’t take but a second after signing Ilona for the 1st place Exeter Chiefs to take shots at Bristol for bringing in the big guns.
The Bristol Bears made a huge splash on social media after signing Ilona Maher and it was only natural they did. Ilona herself is one of the most popular professional female athletes on social media. She’s got 3M+ followers on TikTok, 4.6M+ followers on Instagram… That’s 1.6M more Instagram followers than Caitlin Clark, btw. But the salty Exeter Chiefs took shots at Bristol for their prideful and patriotic Ilona Maher announcements.
It started here with the Bristol Bears announcing they signed Ilona Maher with this video:
@ilonamaher The Eagle has landed 🦅
From there, the Exeter Chiefs Women threw out a subtweet. They also childishly tagged the Bristol Bears in their post:
Standard behaviour 😉@BristolBearsW | @ThePWR pic.twitter.com/ZWv3gwEyRX
— Exeter Chiefs Women (@ExeChiefsWomen) December 3, 2024
Bristol’s admin wasted little time before replying:
😐 https://t.co/mFvrYEdtgA pic.twitter.com/Ab4A0rFSOm
— Bristol Bears Women 🐻 (@BristolBearsW) December 3, 2024
They then had this back and forth:
Bristol Bears
To make all of this juicier, Ilona Maher and the Bristol Bears face the Exeter Chiefs Women this Saturday, December 7th. Bristol is the host and the home fans will be out in full force to support their new signing. It is going to be ROWDY.
Is The Ilona Maher Rugby Hype Real? Yes, Yes It Is
For those wondering, Ilona Maher isn’t just famous because she’s incredible at building a personal brand due in large part to her sister who is her manager… She’s an absolute killer on the pitch.
Ilona helped lead Team USA to a bronze medal, their first ever, in the Paris Olympics. During the 2024 Sevens Series, Ilona Maher led all Team USA athletes with 150 carries, 21 line breaks, 30 offloads, 76 tackles, and 12 dominant tackles. Again, she led every athlete on the Team USA squad in those stats. Need more convincing? Here are some of her rugby highlights:
The Allianz Premiership Women’s Rugby features 9 teams and it’s not surprising at all to see the #1 team on the table quaking in their boots right now. In addition to being one of the best women’s rugby athletes in the world, Ilona brings with her millions upon millions of fans. Those fans will be buying merch and tickets. They will be exclusively watching Bristol Bears games.
Bristol will see a massive infusion of cash from this signing that the other Premiership Women’s Rugby squads will not be able to compete with. Just check the TikTok comments on Ilona’s latest posts… Every comment is some variation of ‘I guess we’re all Bristol fans now, where do I buy a shirt?’
Straight forward from here, the Bristol Bears need to figure out how to get these matches on TV for fans in the US. The barrier to entry here for new fans is so minimal. She’s already a massive star among Team USA fans and DWTS viewers as well as her Rugby following. If Bristol can get these matches on TV in the States it could be huge for growing the game.