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Meg Jones has been open about her grief after her parents died four months apart at the end of 2024; yet after a challenging year she is keen to drive the message that through adversity you can still achieve your dreams.
The England centre would fulfil one such dream if the team lift the Rugby World Cup on Saturday when the Red Roses take on Canada in the final but her efforts in a white shirt have already been rewarded by being nominated for World Rugby’s player of the year. The winner will be announced following the final but the nomination alone “shocked” the 28-year-old.
“It’s nothing you really expect,” she said. “My mantra has always been, ask for nothing, expect nothing and just accept everything that there is. Particularly with the last year I had as well, obviously losing Mum and Dad in 2024. I think it was just a nice sort of recognition and appreciation of what I’m doing, but also doing it for them, which is huge.
“But also a little bit sad as well in the respect of I couldn’t share that moment with them”
Jones lost her father, Simon, to cancer and her mother, Paula, died after struggling with alcoholism. Jones does not want pity though, instead she wants to tell people there is “good in the bad days”.
She said: “My message is so simple, it is just trust who you are. Wear your heart on your sleeve and don’t be afraid of that because I think that’s where true beauty is shown.
“Of course it’s difficult, but I hate being the victim. I was never brought up that way. My mum and dad would hate that. So I’d never sit there asking for pity or sympathy and I actually struggle to give sympathy at times because of the way my mindset is.
“The bit I want to get over is that through difficult times, through adversity, you can still fulfil your dreams and your purpose. I think perspective is so beautiful and it’s everything my mum and dad taught me. Input via output, work hard and always know that you’ll never feel sad 24/7. There are always good days ahead.”
Jones’s nomination for player of the year has come after a thoroughly impressive 2025 where she aided England to another grand slam Six Nations title and had stellar performances during the World Cup, a particular standout coming in the semi-final against France where she scored a try and won three turnovers.
This is not the first World Cup she has been a part of after playing in 2017. England reached the final in that tournament too but lost to New Zealand, a game Jones started.
“I was 20, so that probably played a big part,” she said. “I was chasing the next thing and I probably didn’t understand myself fully. I’ve been through that journey fully now. I trust what I bring to the table and I lead with that. I can’t hide it or try to be someone else, which I might have been doing in 2017”
As a teenager, she had watched England’s 2014 win at home in Cardiff, where she had grown up playing in a boys’ rugby union team and trying to find the right outlet for her love of contact sport.
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“I remember watching the 2014 final. I was on my own, everyone was out. So I was just watching and I remember them winning and I thought: ‘I want to be there.’ I didn’t really care about all the accolades, all the appreciation, etcetera, which is lovely, but I played because I love the game.
“I was the only girl in a full team of boys. No one wanted to tackle the girl. And then as soon as they saw my ability, it didn’t matter. They were like: ‘Right, we need to front up here because she’s scoring tries.’
“I used to play scrum-half with the boys and they used to love how bossy I was. Contact and being boisterous was just always on my mind … I had an older brother and sister and we’d fight … it wasn’t quite WWE but it was pretty heavy. Those are the things that make you who you are and I think playing with the boys allowed me to be boisterous. It didn’t suppress who Meg was; it made me this resilient, strong, bold woman.”
On Saturday, she and her teammates will aim to channel that self-belief into a victory that can generate a legacy for the girls and women to come in the sport in England. “We definitely feel that as a group,” Jones says, “because we know the impact that we can have because of everything we’ve been through as individuals and as a collective.”
The final teeters on the edge with both England and Canada capable of getting the result over the line. But if Jones has one of the best games of her career not only will she be crowned best in the world but England will be world champions too.
