The Glendale Middle School field is alive with cheers and shouts while the Majestics Girls Rugby Club is hard at work. Their spring season is underway, so even as the sun beats down, they’re not holding back.
Practice isn’t easy. Rugby is an intense contact sport. That means sprinting, tackling, dodging and scrummaging are all regular drills on the pitch as the girls prepare to take on teams around Utah and compete in national tournaments.
Majestics head coach Angela Tuiaki started the club for high school girls six years ago alongside her sister Jen Sika. The team has seen massive improvement since its start, according to Tuiaki, taking home state and national championship titles. But in the past few years, she said the sport as a whole has grown, too. She’s noticed more positive attention on women’s rugby than ever before, and she largely credits that to one specific name: Ilona Maher.
“There's rugby, the word rugby, and then there's Ilona’s name next to it. That's how people understand it,” Tuiaki said. “If her name is not next to rugby, people will be like, ‘Wait, what's rugby?’ Well, you know, Ilona, and they're like, ‘Oh yes!’”
Ilona Maher is a rugby star turned influencer with millions of followers across Instagram and TikTok. That’s more than any other rugby player in the world — man or woman. She helped lead the USA Women’s Rugby Sevens team to win a bronze medal in the 2024 Paris Olympics. Beyond her athletics, her funny, genuine and inspiring brand has attracted a massive fanbase.
“I love that she goes out there and that she's not afraid of what the world thinks, but she's sure of who she is,” Tuiaki said.
Maher is strong and proud of it. The Vermont native’s body is muscular, and she’s used her platform to spread love for bodies of all shapes and sizes.
“This body is amazing and it does amazing things for me, and there isn’t one body type for female athletes or for women,” Maher said in a 2022 TikTok. “So, today, I want you all to look in the mirror and appreciate what you got, realize what it does for you, and remember you are beautiful.”
Like other star athletes like Caitlin Clark, Mia Hamm and Billie Jean King, Ilona Maher has transformed the landscape of her sport.
Following her Olympic medal last summer, USA Youth and High School Rugby reported a 19% jump in girls registered for the 2024-2025 season. Now, girls make up 40% of school-age rugby players.
Young Utah athletes like 17-year-old Marley Larkin, captain of the Majestics, say they can feel the difference. Larkin said the influencer has made the sport more inclusive.
“She's brought a lot of great respect and confidence for body shapes and body sizes, especially because every body kind of goes to a different position,” Larkin said. “ You need all these different body sizes, shapes to complete the rugby team.”
Eseta Moala is in the eighth grade and plays for the Layton Christian Academy’s girls rugby club, just north of the Majestics. She said Maher taught her to use her strength to her advantage.
“At first, I was embarrassed because of my size. Like, what are they gonna think? But she didn't really care about her size,” said Eseta Moala, whose sister Luisa plays on the same team. “[Maher] just decided to play, and now she it's her beauty. That's how she stands out.”
The girls’ mother, Victoria Moala, noticed a difference in how the positive role model helped boost her daughters’ self-esteem. And as a Polynesian woman, that impact is even more significant.
“My girls, they're Tongan, and so their bodies are built a little bit different from their peers,” Victoria Moala said.
She said her daughters previously struggled with body image. Even though Maher is not Polynesian herself, Victoria Moala noted the rugby star has taught her daughters to build their confidence through the sport.
“Seeing her, what she's accomplished, gives my daughter someone to look up to,” Victoria Moala said. “Just using their background as Polynesians, to be able to push that forward and represent who their true identity is being Polynesian, and then to take advantage, take that onto the field and be proud of themselves.”
Utah has the nation’s third-highest population of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders behind Hawaii and Alaska, according to a Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute analysis of census data. Angela Tuiaki said the Majestics are an almost all-Polynesian team, and Maher has shown them how rugby can create opportunities for their future.
“They're starting to make that connection, ‘I could be up there. I could bring a platform to actually show the world who I am, too,’” Tuiaki said.
Some of the Majestics players are starting to get that recognition. Marley Larkin has committed to Dartmouth College in 2025 to play Division 1 rugby and continue her education. She wants to keep the cycle of inspiration going.
“It's not about us, it's about the community. The people around looking even at a bigger scale to see, to have other Poly girls, other Pacific Islander Girls, look at our team and know it's possible,” Larkin said. “‘Oh, I can do it too. They can do it, I can do it as well.’”
This article was produced through a collaboration with Amplify Utah.
