Bristol Bears’ new high-profile recruit Ilona Maher says while she loves being a superstar, rugby needs much more than solely her presence for the sport to continue to grow.

Maher, who is the most followed rugby player on social media, made her debut for Premiership Women’s Rugby club Bristol in their 40-17 defeat by Gloucester-Hartpury on Sunday in front of a record 9,240 crowd. The game was moved to Ashton Gate because of high ticket demand due to Maher’s presence.

The 28-year-old said: “Right now it seems like just Ilona Maher, we need to get her in this and this. That is where I would love to bring these teammates up. My teammates in the USA sevens I always try to get them to come up, during the Olympics so many of them put media out there and grew their following.

“I’ve seen the power in it and I’ve seen the power of people connecting with the individual and then going to a sport. People connect with [WNBA star] Caitlin Clark and go see a game and that brings more fans in.

“So if we could have more people connect with Holly Aitchison, Jaz Joyce, Evie Gallagher, that brings them in. That is my goal. I love being a superstar, people call me the superstar of rugby but that’s not enough for the sport. We can’t just have one superstar.”

Maher spent more than an hour after the game talking to fans and signing autographs and was pleased to see “there were a lot of women” in the stands. She added: “In men’s sports, you have a lot of male fans, especially in rugby, it’s a boys’ club. You have a lot of old men going to their team’s game. Can we now get more women buying our jerseys and coming to our games? Women have power, women have influence and they’re a good fanbase to have.”

And it is not just women’s rugby that is feeling the Maher effect. The US international said: “The impact I am having is felt across both men’s and women’s rugby and I have had some of the best men’s players in the world say, ‘keep doing what you’re doing’ because everybody sees the value in it. If one rises, we all rise.”