Latest news with #BristolBearsWomen
BBC News
24-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Wales back Keight to join Sale Sharks in summer
Wales international Courtney Keight will join Sale Sharks Women for the 2025-26 versatile back - who can operate at centre, full-back or on the wing - will depart Bristol Bears Women having signed a one-year deal with said: "I have always placed a lot of importance on a good environment and culture because I want to feel like I'm valued and supported and part of a team."I've always seen Sale as being a place where that's the case. Players and coaches support each other and have fun, they celebrate everything together and that really drew me to the club. "On the pitch there's obviously a lot of investment and that tells me that there's a lot of ambition to be successful in the future. As a whole it looks like a great place to be and I can see myself thriving. I can't wait to get started."Sharks' new head coach Tom Hudson said: "I've spent the past two seasons as a competitor, looking for a weakness in Courtney's game, so I'm incredibly happy and relieved that that's everyone else's problem now."She has so much potential still and we have every intention of ripping off the mask and turning her into a PWR superstar."
BBC News
12-03-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Bears women set for Cardiff double-header in 2026
Bristol Bears Women will play a Premiership Women's Rugby fixture at Cardiff's Principality Stadium next match on 28 March 2026 will form part of a double-header event with the men's Premiership men's team take on West country rivals Bath at Wales' national stadium on 10 May this year, the first time they have played a home game away from Ashton Gate. Branded as the 'Big Day Out' by the club, the team will swap their 27,000 seater ground for the 75,000 capacity than 35,000 tickets have already been sold so far for the inaugural event this spring, according to the opponents of both the men and women's sides in Cardiff next season will be announced at a later event follows in the footsteps of Harlequins and Saracens, who have successfully hosted similar showpiece matches at Twickenham and the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in recent last summer, chief executive of Bristol Sport Gavin Marshall said the aim of the event was to try and create new revenue streams for the club.
CNN
03-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CNN
US rugby star Ilona Maher tearfully ends her short but significant time in England with Bristol Bears Women
American star Ilona Maher bid a tearful farewell to English rugby as she played her final game with Bristol Bears Women. Maher, who shot to fame during last year's Paris Olympics, has had a huge impact on women's rugby in England since her move to Bristol in January, instantly drawing big crowds. More than 9,200 fans attended Maher's first home game for the Bears at Ashton Gate – easily double the team's previous record – while close to 7,000 watched her final Premiership Women's Rugby (PWR) game against Gloucester-Hartpury at Queensholm on Sunday. She scored a try – her fourth in seven games with Bristol – during her final outing but the Bears ultimately fell to a 36-20 defeat in the PWR semifinal. 'To all of you, women's rugby is changing … please keep coming out and supporting and fill these seats,' a visibly emotional Maher said on Instagram after the game. 'We're setting records and we need you to buy the shirt, come to the games … This has been an honor to wear this jersey and I just hope that we can continue, even when I'm not playing in the PWR. There's something special going on here.' Maher, part of the USA's bronze-medal-winning team at the Olympics, has won over hordes of fans thanks to her infectious, larger-than-life personality, earning the title of the most-followed rugby player on the internet with around 8.5 million followers across Instagram and TikTok. Since achieving social media stardom, she has appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated's 'Swimsuit Edition' and finished runner-up on 'Dancing With the Stars' before turning her focus to 15-a-side rugby. Having spent most of her recent career playing sevens, Maher signed a three-month contract with Bristol in January, hopeful of representing the US at the Women's Rugby World Cup later this year. The 28-year-old has played as a wing and center in recent games, scoring her first try – powering through two tackles and running more than half the length of the field – in her second game with the Bears. After Sunday's semifinal defeat, coach Dave Ward said that Maher had 'put us on the map,' adding: 'The energy that she brought to the squad is exactly what we needed at the time … She feels confident going to the USA and I for one can't wait to see her at the World Cup.' As well as her performances on the pitch, Maher has also won praise for speaking candidly about body image and standards of beauty, especially in light of her Sports Illustrated cover appearance. 'I have a body that a lot of people would say is not feminine or is not beautiful or is too strong, too this and that,' she told CNN Sport earlier this year. 'I never understood why my big body looked like this, yet I was always so fit and I was always so fast and I could always keep up. I didn't look like them, so I just love that people are seeing me.'
CNN
03-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CNN
US rugby star Ilona Maher tearfully ends her short but significant time in England with Bristol Bears Women
American star Ilona Maher bid a tearful farewell to English rugby as she played her final game with Bristol Bears Women. Maher, who shot to fame during last year's Paris Olympics, has had a huge impact on women's rugby in England since her move to Bristol in January, instantly drawing big crowds. More than 9,200 fans attended Maher's first home game for the Bears at Ashton Gate – easily double the team's previous record – while close to 7,000 watched her final Premiership Women's Rugby (PWR) game against Gloucester-Hartpury at Queensholm on Sunday. She scored a try – her fourth in seven games with Bristol – during her final outing but the Bears ultimately fell to a 36-20 defeat in the PWR semifinal. 'To all of you, women's rugby is changing … please keep coming out and supporting and fill these seats,' a visibly emotional Maher said on Instagram after the game. 'We're setting records and we need you to buy the shirt, come to the games … This has been an honor to wear this jersey and I just hope that we can continue, even when I'm not playing in the PWR. There's something special going on here.' Maher, part of the USA's bronze-medal-winning team at the Olympics, has won over hordes of fans thanks to her infectious, larger-than-life personality, earning the title of the most-followed rugby player on the internet with around 8.5 million followers across Instagram and TikTok. Since achieving social media stardom, she has appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated's 'Swimsuit Edition' and finished runner-up on 'Dancing With the Stars' before turning her focus to 15-a-side rugby. Having spent most of her recent career playing sevens, Maher signed a three-month contract with Bristol in January, hopeful of representing the US at the Women's Rugby World Cup later this year. The 28-year-old has played as a wing and center in recent games, scoring her first try – powering through two tackles and running more than half the length of the field – in her second game with the Bears. After Sunday's semifinal defeat, coach Dave Ward said that Maher had 'put us on the map,' adding: 'The energy that she brought to the squad is exactly what we needed at the time … She feels confident going to the USA and I for one can't wait to see her at the World Cup.' As well as her performances on the pitch, Maher has also won praise for speaking candidly about body image and standards of beauty, especially in light of her Sports Illustrated cover appearance. 'I have a body that a lot of people would say is not feminine or is not beautiful or is too strong, too this and that,' she told CNN Sport earlier this year. 'I never understood why my big body looked like this, yet I was always so fit and I was always so fast and I could always keep up. I didn't look like them, so I just love that people are seeing me.'
BBC News
01-03-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Gloucestershire in Pictures: Spring sunshine and stadium renaming
This week's round-up of pictures shows signs Spring is on its way in with a huge rugby game this weekend, Gloucester's famous stadium is renamed for only the second time in its history. On Sunday, Gloucester-Hartpury host Bristol Bears Women in their PWR semi final. To mark the occasion Kingsholm has been rebranded Queensholm, as it was two years ago when Gloucester-Hartpury beat Exeter Chiefs Women in the final which was held in this stadium. A sure sign Spring is on the way is the arrival of lambs. About 120 have already been born at Cotswold Farm Park, with staff expecting more than 550 by the end of April. Princess Anne visited Lydney, in the Forest of Dean, this week to meet people who had been affected by Storm Bert in November 2024. She told residents and businessowners their response to the storm, which saw about 50 homes flooded, had been "extraordinary". There have been celebrations at the independent Sherborne Cinema in the Kingsholm area of Gloucester. Mark Cunningham bought the building and spent more than two years painting it and adding 1950s style decoration. He has been presented with a Mayor's Medal and certificate for his "outstanding service to the city".
