‘Girls need help’
Ireland star reveals why she stood up to body-shaming
Saturday 24 November 2018
Leah Lyons could not sleep. Her mind was racing. Despite Ireland having put in a strong home performance to beat Wales in the Women’s Six Nations last February, the prop was upset.
On the drive back from Dublin to the Lyons family home in Ballyhooly, a village in rural Co Cork, her parents, Michael and Nadine, had told their daughter that they had overhead a supporter using derogatory language about her appearance, including the word “heifer”.
Lyons, 23, is softly spoken and describes herself as a “relaxed” character but, as she lay tossing and turning in bed that night, this was one slur she was finding impossible to let go. Finally, she came to a resolution: as a female athlete, she had to speak out.
“There are young girls watching this sport, so I think I have to make everyone aware that, yes, I know I am big, I can’t hide that, I am on TV, but I am still playing my matches and I am doing what I love doing,” she says.
“People know who we are as a team and I can’t hide away from that. I wanted to raise awareness about body-shaming because there might be a girl somewhere thinking, ‘S---, I am big, I feel like I am not good at anything.’ That girl probably feels that people see her that way, but I am like, ‘No, there is something for everyone.’ I am quite quiet and I wouldn’t usually say something. But this affects people.”
Showing the steel that has brought her nine Test caps, Lyons took to Twitter. She wrote: “Poor choice of wording from a man in the crowd (Irish) yesterday … ‘Heifer’ in relating [sic] to myself … You were seated three rows away from my family who heard you and surrounded by young children, girls and boys, who are all shapes and sizes. Rugby is a game for all! Have a bit of respect!” It was an example of social media acting as a force for good as Lyons gained unequivocal support and the post went viral. “I had people messaging me thanking me as their daughter or son had had similar experiences,” she says.
Lyons’ motivation to speak up was deeply personal. She has painful memories of her teenage years, when school became a struggle, her body type not conforming to the expectations set out by her peers. “Growing up, I would have struggled around my body image. I went to an all-girls school and, if you don’t fit in, it isn’t the easiest place to be. I hated school because I wasn’t academic and I didn’t feel like I fitted in.”
Rugby provided a sanctuary from her insecurities. “Growing up when you feel that how you look doesn’t fit in is very hard,” she says. “Rugby became my way of dealing with it.”
It has been to the sport’s benefit, as well as her own. Lyons – who has a Canadian mother, English father and Argentine maternal grandmother – is now part of Harlequins’ Premier XVS squad and is already embarking on a coaching career.
Today, she will step out at Twickenham to play England – less than an hour after Eddie Jones’ men have tussled with Australia – and find herself face to face with England’s Vickii Cornborough, her Harlequins team-mate. She is already looking forward to physically “having a go at her”.
Lyons has never played at Twickenham – “I pass by it all the time, but I have never been in it,” she says – but her past experiences will only make her stand prouder than ever when the first whistle blasts. “I am sorry I can’t fit into your thing of how you think I should look,” she says. “But I am trying to be the best I can be to represent my country, and to do the best I can for myself.”
England v Ireland (Twickenham, 5.40pm, Sky Sports)
England S Mckenna (Saracens); L Thompson (Worcester Valkyries), C Williams (Loughborough Lightning), T Heard (Gloucester-hartpury), K Smith (Gloucester-hartpury); Z Harrison (Saracens), L Riley (Harlequins);
V Cornborough (Harlequins), H Kerr (Darlington Mowden Park Sharks), H Botterman (Saracens), Z Aldcroft (Gloucester-hartpury), A Scott (Harlequins), P Cleall (Saracens), V Fleetwood (Saracens), S Hunter (Loughborough Lightning, capt). Replacements L Davies (Worcester Valkyries), E Perry (Saracens), S Brown (Harlequins), C O’donnell (Loughborough Lightning), M Packer (Saracens), C Macdonald (Wasps), K Daley-mclean (Loughborough Lightning), R Burford (Harlequins).
Ireland L Delany (IQ Rugby); E Considine (Munster), S Naoupu (Leinster, capt), M Claffey (Leinster), L Sheehan (Munster; N Caughey (Leinster), N Cronin (Munster); L Peat (Leinster), E Hooban (Leinster), L Lyons (Harlequins), A Mcdermott (Leinster), N Fryday (Connacht), J Deacon (Leinster), C Molloy (Wasps),
J Short (Leinster). Replacements S Mimnagh (IQ Rugby), L Feely (Connacht), F Reidy (Munster), C Mclaughlin (Ulster), E Mcmahon (Connacht), A Hughes (Leinster), E Murphy (Leinster), B Parsons (Connacht).