American rugby star Ilona Maher fell just short in ABC’s Dancing with the Stars final on Tuesday night, finishing third in the judging panel, but came in an agonizing second after viewers’ votes were also counted.

Before her final dance with her partner, Allen Bursten, Maher summarized the impact of her stint on the show.

“I am strong and powerful, but I can also be graceful,” said the Olympic sevens bronze medalist. “So the Mirrorball (Trophy) won’t be so much for me (if I win it), I think it will be for all the girls who have been told they’re too big or too muscular or they’re not pretty.”

At the event, the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy – named after the late British judge on the show and its British equivalent, Strictly Come Dancing – went to Joey Graziadei (star of ABC’s The Bachelor) and dancer Jenna Johnson.

Maher’s next step will be eagerly awaited by her legions of new fans since her three-month stint on primetime screens, her huge following on social media, where she posts messages of empowerment mixed with trademark jokes, and across the rugby world.

Maher has said she wants to play for the US in the 15-a-side Rugby World Cup in England next year. She would bring immense star power on and off the field, but has been away from the field for some time and more TV engagements are to come. Fortunately, the Bachelorette is alluded to. On Tuesday night, ABC announced that Maher and Bursten will be part of the Dancing with the Stars tour, in select cities.

They entered Tuesday’s joyfully punishing three-hour finale third in the jury rankings from the week before, with 57 points, one point behind two pairs: Graziadei and Johnson and Chandler Kinney (a young actor, star of Disney’s Zombies) and her partner Brandon Armstrong.

Introducing Maher, judge Bruno Tonioli called her “perhaps the most powerful female star we’ve ever had – yet she also brings enlightenment.”

Maher’s first dance was in the redemption round – a chance to right wrongs made earlier in the season. Maher was given the jive after crying after her first attempt at the form. She and Bursten broke the stage for Ray Charles’ Shake a Tail Feather. Maher had picked Bursten up earlier, but now she jumped into his arms.

“I don’t feel like doing the freestyle,” Maher said after the dance. “I was really just focused on this redemption, and it’s been eating at me all week, and I’ve been stressed all week. It may not be perfect, but I did my best.”

She scored three nines, but on a night where no judge gave less, this meant she and Bursten were four points behind the leaders.

A glimmer of light opened when Graziadei and Johnson “fell” to just 29 out of 30 for their freestyle, which, like that of Olympic gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik, was based on the celebrity’s chosen sport, in this case the tennis player who played Graziadei previously coached in Hawaii. finding reality TV fame. Danny Amendola, the Super Bowl-winning wide receiver for the New England Patriots, added variety by performing his freestyle routine as Ken on his partner’s bright pink Barbie.

Maher began her freestyle routine in a mock rugby locker room, with shirts on the walls, each named after an Olympic teammate, and presumably the smell of mud, blood and mingling filling the confined air. After a short monologue, with jokes, she and Bursten danced an exuberant rugby-themed routine to Chappell Roan’s Femininomenon. At the end, Maher, dressed in a daring mirrorball costume, tackled Bursten and knocked loose an equally glittering rugby ball.

Judge Carrie Ann Inaba enthuses: “It’s all about the impact you leave behind. You leave me feeling so strong. That’s the magic.”

Three tens followed, a perfect score.

At the Olympic Games in Paris, Maher’s team did enough for third place. That bronze medal did wonders for women’s rugby in the US, both on and off the field. On Dancing with the Stars, Maher did everything she could, but finished one place short of an imaginary silver. But she did wonders for herself and for the game she plays.