Within seconds of meeting Olivia Maher, elder sister of and manager to Ilona, one of the most famous rugby players in the world, she pulls a loose hair from my coat before introducing me to the youngest Maher sister, Adrianna.
It is a small gesture which instantly puts me at ease; a signal that the Mahers are women who take the time to invest in supporting women. But we already knew that.
Olivia and Adrianna are searching for their seats at Kingsholm, a stadium in Gloucester, England. It has been renamed ‘Queensholm’ for the day because Gloucester-Hartpury’s women’s team are facing Bristol Bears, the 15-a-side rugby union side Ilona joined in January, for a place in the Premiership Women’s Rugby (PWR) final.
The Maher sisters shuffle along to offer me a seat. That is a family ethos the two sisters seemed to have inherited from Ilona, their middle sister who has, from scratch, built an 8.4million following across social media for taking pride in herself, posting honestly and encouraging others to do the same. Ilona’s body-positive messages have resonated deeply with millions of girls and women. So too has her silliness.
“She influences us,” Olivia, 30, says before pausing to encourage her younger sister to speak.
“She is very authentically herself and she always…
