When both of Meg Jones' parents died in 2024, she could have been forgiven for focusing on anything but rugby.
But it strengthened her resolve and made her determined to make the most of every moment playing the sport she loves. Being nominated for the World Rugby 15s Player of the Year award on the eve of the RWC 2025 final feels like vindication for Jones, 28, who is playing in her third Rugby World Cup tournament.
"It [losing her parents] has been a huge fuel for me," she said. "Of course it's difficult, but I hate being the victim. I was never brought up that way. My mum and dad would hate that.
"I never want people to feel sorry for me, but through difficult times, you can still fulfil your dreams and your purpose, and you can use that adversity to drive you in such a good way."
Cheering on Wales with dad
Born and raised in Cardiff, Jones discovered rugby while watching the game with her Welsh father (her mother is English) and starting playing when she was 10, the only girl in a boys' team.
“I used to play scrum-half with the boys and they used to love how bossy I was, ordering them around. That’s the energy I had. It reaffirms that energy was such a big part of it.
“I loved the contact side of the game, tackling was huge for me. I hated playing touch and tag rugby. I always wanted to get stuck in.
“I was never any good at hockey because I’d always bash into someone. They said it wasn’t a contact sport and they put me in goal, where I had a bit more padding and I could dive into things.
“Contact and being boisterous was just always on my mind… I don’t know why. Maybe it was something I was born with.”
But Jones didn't have many female rugby role models, instead looking up to the likes of Dwayne Peel and Stephen Jones as Wales began to thrive during the Warren Gatland era.
“We’d be in the pub with my dad, cheering. He’d be calling Leigh Halfpenny ‘Thruppence’. Those were really memorable times for me. Those were the people I aspired towards.
“Then in 2014, that was the first time I actually thought ‘wow, OK. I’m capable of doing this'.”
'Trust who you are, wear your heart on your sleeve'
Having moved across the Severn Bridge to study three years earlier, Jones made her debut for the Red Roses in 2015, aged 19, against New Zealand in the Rugby Super Series and has been a regular in the squad ever since, as well as playing for the England and Great Britain sevens teams.
She has started every game in England's run to the RWC 2025 final, becoming a fans' favourite thanks to her whole-hearted, hard-carrying approach on the pitch and cheery demeanour off it - despite going through the hardest of times.
"It makes my heart warm," she said of the support. "I feel really grateful with all the kind words people are saying but my message is so simple: trust who you are, wear your heart on your sleeve and don't be afraid of that, because that is where true beauty is shown.
"We're humans, we like connecting; the more we feel purpose, the more we feel like living."
