Ilona Maher hasn’t played rugby since last year’s World Cup, when she helped lead the USA Eagles XV-a-side team against England (a 69-7 loss), Australia (a 31-31 tie) and Samoa (a 60-0 win), but has said that she wants to play for the Eagles 7s team in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
Now she’s posted a photo on her Instagram account of her with the current 7s team, apparently in training. It’s most likely taken at the Elite Athlete Training Center in Chula Vista, California.
“First day of school,” Maher posted next to the photo, which features some of the stars from the Olympic bronze-medal winning team Maher played with in Paris in 2024 before switching to XVs for the World Cup in England, as well as some new stars like Su Adegoke. Ariana Ramsey, who played in the 2024 Olympic team and has become one of the team’s leaders since, responded to the post with": “We bacckkkkk.”
I reached out to USA Rugby, Maher and a few of the players to confirm that Maher was back in the squad, but received no reply.
If you want to learn more about my write-up of the Paris Bronze-medal winning try by Alex “Spiff” Sedrick, please buy “The Run,” which I published as a kindle single. It’s a short read in the style of John McPhee; hope you enjoy it.