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Jasmine Joyce: 'We don't want to be the men'
Three-time Olympian Jasmine Joyce has been subjected to online hate on social media following the post-match broadcast of Wales vs England in the Women’s Six Nations.
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Joyce, who was the first rugby player to represent Team GB at three Olympic Games and has over 40 Wales caps, took part in a TikTok dance trend with England player and Bristol Bears teammate Sarah Bern, and former players and captains, turned pundits, Katy Daley-McLean and Siwan Lillicrap.
The moment has sparked debate among rugby fans, with many condemning the actions by using the hypothetical example of Wales’s men’s team doing the same following a loss by such a margin, and some individuals also using the platform to spew misogyny.
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With many quick to compare the men’s and women’s teams, few, if any, made use of the fact that – despite the loss – Wales Women won more games in 2024 than the men, who haven’t recorded a victory since October 2023, and are the most recent of the two teams to have won a game at the Principality Stadium (vs Italy, 27 April 2024).
Welsh utility back Joyce told RugbyPass: “People have been saying the men wouldn’t do that – and they’re right, no, they wouldn’t do that, because their brand is a lot different.
“You wouldn’t see men doing that. The men play rugby for a job, they get paid thousands of pounds to do what they do. They’re doing it for the money aspect. Unfortunately, in the women’s game, we don’t get paid thousands of pounds to do what we do.
“We do it because we love it. We do get paid to do it as a job, but we don’t get paid any more money than someone working in an office, for example, no matter what we do. We go out there to enjoy it, we’ve got to enjoy it.
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“Our personalities, we want people to understand who we are. Sometimes that gets taken away from us because we’re so judged on social media. I just think – if you don’t want to see me TikToking or on social media – just unfollow me or block me.
When the post-match interview gets interrupted for a TikTok dance 🤣#BBCRugby #W6N pic.twitter.com/K70LwP7l1f
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) March 29, 2025
“It’s the same in real life, if someone doesn’t like you, and they’re like ‘I don’t like you because you’re too loud’ – just don’t hang around with me then. I don’t see why people waste their energy on saying things on social media like ‘You’re an embarrassment’. Just be kind – it’s not hard.”
Joyce knows first-hand the impact that social media can have on the women’s game, having had the most-followed rugby player in the world, Ilona Maher, as a teammate at Bristol Bears last season.
The ‘Ilona Maher Effect’ has provided a significant boost to the club, the PWR, and rugby as a whole, with record-breaking crowds and a huge increase in social media followers just the tip of the iceberg of her impact in just three months in the league.
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“What Lo has done for the game is absolutely fantastic. She’s expressed who she is outside of a game of rugby, and people are drawn to that,” Joyce said.
“People aren’t necessarily drawn to her rugby and how she performs on the pitch, yeah, that helps because she’s world-class, but people are also drawn to the way she is; the way she encourages female athletes, and everything that her social media is about is absolutely brilliant.
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“Her coming to Bristol has upped our fan engagement by thousands. People are now buying her jersey with Maher in the back. It’s crazy what she can do for the game, and that’s all from the way she is and her personality.
“Yes, her rugby has helped with that, but if she was just a rugby player and a bronze medallist and all of that, she wouldn’t have got all these fans engaged with it. Because she’s so present on social media, I think it’s massive.
“That’s the huge difference to the men’s game. Our fans want to see our personalities, see us outside of rugby, not just coming to watch me run really fast on the pitch.”
Despite the 67-12 loss and the following backlash that Joyce has received on social media, the match was an occasion in itself.
With 21,186 fans in attendance at the Principality Stadium, in what was only the second standalone fixture in that venue for the women’s team, they surpassed the Wales women’s Euro play-off in December 2024 to set the record for the highest attendance at a women’s sporting event in Wales.
Away from the 80 minutes of rugby, the day also included a DJ set from Wales player Sisilia Tuipulotu, a half-time performance from The Stickmen Project, and ample pyrotechnics, which all contributed to the occasion – something which Joyce also believes is a key part of continuing the growth of the women’s game.
The 29-year-old added: “We don’t want to be the men – we don’t expect to have or want the same as the men. We are a different brand. To be seen and heard that we are going to have over 20,000 people there, for us to have that entertainment and for them to spend the money on that for us is massive.
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“All we want is to be treated with respect. We want to be seen as role models for the younger girls and boys out there. We want to showcase our personalities and who we are, with fun, enjoyment, and laughter. That’s massive for us to engage the crowd.
“For the fans to come back, that’s huge. We don’t necessarily have the fans the men have – it’s a very different brand and business. The more we engage with the fans with our personalities, the more the fans will come back.”
The theme of being seen as players in their own right, and not the same as their male counterparts, was also demonstrated by Joyce’s footwear during the game.
As part of the collaboration between IDA and Guinness, Joyce and others have been wearing the “Never Settle” boot – which is a world-first soft ground boot designed specifically for women, during the Women’s Six Nations.
Credit ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan
Speaking as an ambassador for the collaboration, Joyce also shared her thoughts on the boots, saying: “It’s amazing. I think that IDA have put in place all the unique needs for female athletes. We’ve worn men’s boots for however long, which has been fine; we’ve never even questioned it.
“Now the fact that there are boots specifically for women out there makes us feel seen, feel heard, and empowered to get to wear them. We’re being known as a separate brand as women rather than having rugby boots all being for men.
“Comfort is a massive part of the boot selection process, and I think that’s exactly what the boots are. Alongside that, a lot of us wear boots because we enjoy the way they look and things like that.
“At the game on the weekend, everybody thought my boots were flashing from underneath, so that’s pretty cool. The look is massive for us as athletes as well. As they say, look good, play good. They tick the boxes of feel good and look good.”
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It’s important they do it their way and create their own thing. I follow the Australian Women’s 7s team, they just look like they’re having the time of their lives and that will bring more girls and fans into the game. Characters make rugby.
I read some of the online comments on this and their were thoughtless and veering to misogyny.
As well as the pay gap women tend to recover quickly from the emotional intensity of matches. The match is over they shake hands and they can get quickly over a loss. THis doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.
Many men tend to view rugby as a test of manhood. They are aggressive, and take a big loss about as well as they would take a castration.
To judge women against men in this way is obviously stupid. The Welsh team are trying to promote publicity for the sport as well as trying to win matches. Sulking for months wont attract girls to the support, no matter how much men online demand a period of self flagellation.