Six rising players giving casual fans a reason to pay attention as Women’s Elite Rugby builds its next generation of stars
Women’s Elite Rugby has reached the point where simply having a professional league is no longer the entire story.
The next step is creating stars.
For rugby supporters, names like Alev Kelter, Ilona Maher and Hope Rogers already carry recognition well beyond their clubs. But if WER is going to continue building an audience in the United States, it also needs players who become synonymous with the league itself—the athletes young players want to imitate, casual viewers recognize when they turn on a match, and supporters pay to see when their team comes to town.
After its second season, those players are beginning to emerge.
The 2026 campaign ended with the Denver Onyx defeating the Bay Breakers 24-17 in the Legacy Cup, giving Denver consecutive championships. Behind the standings, however, there was another encouraging development: a collection of young and emerging players began producing performances capable of pushing them from rugby circles toward a much larger audience. (Women’s Elite Rugby)
Here are six names casual rugby supporters should start learning.
Aly Cunningham — Denver Onyx
There might not have been a better advertisement for a young American playmaker than the opening minutes of the 2026 Legacy Cup.
Denver fly-half Aly Cunningham intercepted a Bay Breakers cross-kick, found space and raced more than 80 meters for the opening try of the championship match. Before halftime she had another try, helping Denver build the advantage that ultimately delivered a second consecutive title. Cunningham was named Legacy Cup MVP. (Rugby World)
That performance did not come from nowhere.
Cunningham arrived in professional rugby after an exceptional career at Sacred Heart University. She won the 2025 Prusmack Award, recognizing the top female collegiate sevens player in the United States, after helping elevate the Sacred Heart program and earning All-NIRA First Team recognition three consecutive times. (Sacred Heart University)
For casual fans, Cunningham plays one of rugby’s easiest positions to understand. The fly-half is essentially the quarterback of an attack. She is asked to distribute, kick, organize and recognize opportunities before the defense does.
Cunningham has the additional quality every growing league desperately needs: she can create highlights.
A breakaway try in a championship match gets shared beyond rugby circles. Do that repeatedly and people eventually begin remembering the name attached to the highlights.
At the moment, Cunningham looks like one of WER’s strongest candidates to make that jump.
Megan Ahnen — TC Gemini
Sometimes a player’s rise happens gradually.
Then suddenly everyone notices.
Megan Ahnen went from an on-call player for the TC Gemini during WER’s inaugural season to one of the most productive attacking players in the league.
In 2026, Ahnen finished with 11 tries, the highest total in WER according to season recaps and statistical tracking. The performance was a remarkable progression for a player who made only four appearances and one start during the league’s first season. (Verticality Sports)
Ahnen is particularly interesting because she does not fit neatly into one rugby box. Her playing background includes time at center, wing and even flanker. That versatility tells you something about the kind of athlete WER can showcase.
But casual supporters don’t need a positional breakdown to understand Ahnen.
She scores tries.
That matters.
Every sport eventually develops players whose popularity comes partly from being associated with the scoreboard. Rugby’s laws may occasionally confuse newcomers, but someone repeatedly crossing the try line requires very little explanation.
If Ahnen can reproduce anything close to her 2026 production, she has an opportunity to become one of the attacking faces of the Gemini—and perhaps one of WER’s most recognizable players.
Chloe Headland — TC Gemini
If Ahnen was finishing opportunities for the Gemini, Chloe Headland was busy putting points on the scoreboard from seemingly everywhere else.
Headland finished the 2026 season as WER’s leading points scorer with 111 points, becoming the first player in league history to surpass 100 points in a season. (Verticality Sports)
That alone should put her firmly on the radar.
But Headland also has the type of sporting background that can appeal to people outside traditional rugby audiences.
Before joining the Gemini, she played rugby at Harvard, where she contributed to championship-winning teams. She also has a significant ice hockey background and has represented Great Britain internationally in hockey. (Harvard University)
That multi-sport background feels particularly appropriate for a league trying to attract new American sports fans.
Headland can run, finish and kick goals, meaning she can influence the scoreboard in several different ways. When the Gemini score a try, there is a good chance Headland is involved either in creating the opportunity or adding the conversion afterward.
There is also something valuable about having a reliable goal kicker as a recognizable league personality. Rugby supporters quickly become accustomed to the sight of one player standing over the ball when a match is on the line.
If WER continues expanding its television audience, Headland could become one of those familiar figures.
Soraia Parr — Denver Onyx
Of all the stories produced by the 2026 WER season, Soraia Parr’s may represent professional rugby’s potential in the United States better than almost any other.
Parr entered WER after playing club rugby with the Rochester Renegades in Division II.
Then she started scoring.
And scoring.
And scoring.
Parr produced consecutive hat tricks during Denver’s season—three tries against Boston followed by another three against New York. Statistical tracking credits her with 11 tries during the 2026 campaign, putting her alongside the league’s most dangerous finishers. (Rugby Database)
That pathway is important.
American rugby still has enormous amounts of talent sitting throughout collegiate and senior club systems. WER gives those players something that barely existed previously: a professional destination where an athlete can suddenly find herself playing in front of a national audience.
Parr is proof of concept.
For casual supporters, she also offers something even simpler: explosive scoring ability.
Wings are frequently rugby’s home-run hitters. Get them into open space and the entire match changes.
Parr showed throughout 2026 that she can provide exactly that.
Her rise from Division II club rugby to one of the most productive try scorers in the professional game is precisely the type of story WER should want fans following.
Tiahna Padilla — TC Gemini
Some players arrive in professional rugby with expectations already attached.
Tiahna Padilla is one of them.
The Harvard captain won the 2026 MA Sorensen Award, recognizing the country’s outstanding collegiate women’s rugby player. Even more impressively, Padilla had been a Sorensen finalist four consecutive times while helping Harvard win three straight NIRA Division I championships from 2023 through 2025. (USA Rugby)
The Gemini selected her through WER’s spring process, placing one of the most accomplished collegiate players in the country directly into the professional pathway. By the second half of the season, she was starting at center for Twin Cities. (LRA PR)
Padilla may represent something bigger than one team’s roster.
She represents what the American women’s rugby development system could eventually look like.
A player grows through youth rugby, becomes a collegiate star, moves into WER and potentially continues toward the international game. Padilla had already been included in a USA Women’s Eagles winter camp before entering the league. (Eagles Rugby)
That pathway matters because professional leagues need continuity. Fans should be able to discover somebody playing college rugby and then continue following her career after graduation.
Padilla gives WER exactly that type of player.
The college résumé is already there. The next chapter is discovering what happens when that talent receives several seasons of professional development.
Telesi Uhatafe — Bay Breakers
For WER to succeed long term, it cannot exist separately from the international game. Ideally, the league should become one of the places where future Eagles are prepared for Test rugby.
Telesi Uhatafe is beginning to demonstrate what that pathway can look like.
The Bay Breakers center has already moved between the collegiate, professional and international environments. She was included among the uncapped players in the USA Women’s Eagles’ 2026 Pacific Four Series pool before joining the Eagles during their summer tour of South Africa. (Eagles Rugby)
Then came the kind of international performance capable of accelerating a player’s reputation.
In the second Test against South Africa in Pretoria, Uhatafe scored two second-half tries as the United States secured victory. South African coverage highlighted her aggressive running with the ball as the Eagles stretched the defense. (Daily Maverick)
That crossover between club and country is enormously valuable for WER.
A casual fan might first discover Uhatafe wearing an Eagles jersey. When that fan discovers she also plays domestically for the Bay Breakers, WER gains another connection to the international audience.
And at center, Uhatafe plays the type of physical, direct rugby that translates immediately to new supporters.
You don’t have to understand attacking structures to appreciate someone breaking tackles.
WER Needs Stars as Much as It Needs Teams
The encouraging thing for Women’s Elite Rugby is that this list could easily grow.
There are established Eagles throughout the competition, promising collegiate players entering the professional system and athletes such as Cunningham, Ahnen, Headland and Parr beginning to create statistical identities within the league itself.
That’s important because fans rarely fall in love with a league table first.
They fall in love with players.
Someone sees a Cunningham breakaway. Someone watches Ahnen score another try. A young player tries to copy Headland’s kicking routine. Another supporter discovers Padilla in college and follows her into WER.
Eventually those individual connections create loyalty to teams and leagues.
WER is still young. Founded in 2024 and launched in 2025, the league has only completed two seasons. It remains far too early to know which players will ultimately become the defining personalities of American professional women’s rugby. (Women’s Elite Rugby)
But the raw material is appearing.
And accessibility gives those players a chance to be discovered. WER’s 2026 matches were distributed through Women’s Sports Network across platforms including Roku, Tubi, Fubo, Plex and Samsung TV Plus, giving potential new supporters considerably more opportunities to stumble across the competition. (Women’s Elite Rugby)
The next challenge is turning those viewers into fans.
That’s where recognizable players become so important.
A successful professional rugby league needs rivalries, packed grounds and meaningful championships. But eventually it also needs the moment when someone who doesn’t follow rugby hears a name like Aly Cunningham, Megan Ahnen, Chloe Headland, Soraia Parr, Tiahna Padilla or Telesi Uhatafe and already knows exactly who you’re talking about.
After the 2026 season, that possibility doesn’t feel nearly as distant as it once did.
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