Adrianna Maher is loving everything about the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025. From uncovering the delights of several host cities to revelling in the quality of the action, via celebrating the achievements of her sister, the first two weeks have clearly knocked her socks off.
But more than all of this, the youngest Maher sister is simply bowled over by the interest shown in a sport that her family first embraced long, long ago.
“When she first started, the stadiums we'd go to were so empty, or empty is a bad word, but, you know, they weren't full, less than half even,” Adrianna Maher said, thinking back to 2018, when elder sibling Ilona made her debut for the USA women’s sevens team.
Back then, the idea of 42,723 people watching the opening game of a Women’s RWC was beyond fanciful. Now, not only is that a reality but the RWC 2025 final is already a confirmed sell-out in the 82,000-capacity Allianz Stadium, and millions upon millions of people are tuning in to watch the best in the world go head-to-head.
A step change the youngest Maher knows her sibling has helped fuel.
“Just seeing the interest in people and the young girls, and to know my sister had an impact on that, that's just incredible. It really is,” Adrianna said of Ilona who has amassed 5.2 million Instagram followers and 3.6 million TikTok devotees.
“God, I don't even know ‘proud’ can’t even describe it. It's so much more than that.”
Adianna has grabbed a front-row seat herself on this rocket-ship. Since March this year she, Ilona and eldest sibling Olivia have hosted the weekly House of Maher podcast, a platform where the trio chat about everything from family life, to pop culture via the realities of being an elite sportswoman.
It meant watching last Saturday’s epic 31-31 USA v Australia Pool A match was even more nail-biting for Maher junior.
"Incredibly stressful," was how she described it between laughs. "I'm used to sevens matches, so 14 minutes of, you know, anxiety, and it being 80 minutes was something different. Something special.
"It was kind of the craziest thing."
Back in York, Adrianna is well aware the family have it all – and more – to go through again this coming Saturday. Ilona Maher's USA will kick-off at 13:30 v Samoa knowing that if they beat Samoa handsomely and Australia suffer a heavy defeat in their evening Pool A match v England (KO 17:00), the Women’s Eagles could leap-frog the Wallaroos into the knockouts.
"Yeah, they have to go all in,” Adrianna said. "I, at the moment, don't know the math or the point differential, but I'm excited to see it and I think the girls just played such a great match (v Australia) and it was tough."
Either-way, nothing is going to stop team Maher from their single-minded journey to inspire and entertain young girls across the globe, with Adrianna adding simply, "I'm so proud of Ilona and the entire team".
