If you were to ask Bermuda’s rugby players who Jillian Brydon is, most would recognise her as the physiotherapist for the national team or as the member of the Bermuda Rugby Football Union in charge of player safety.

However, what many in Bermuda’s rugby community may not know is that it was Brydon who established the women’s game on the island.

At 17, she left home and made her way to boarding school in Canada, as an avid sportswoman.

“I had always been heavily involved in sports and we had a head of gym, who was passionate about rugby,” said Brydon.

“Needless to say, the offer of playing another sport convinced me to go out and give it a try. I enjoyed my two years playing in high school but was also involved in a bunch of other sports, so rugby was more of an opportunity than a passion at that point.”

While she seized that opportunity in high school, Brydon had no intention to continue playing rugby when she started university, but fate intervened when a fellow student convinced her to accompany her to the varsity rugby trials.

“I managed to make the team and for the next four years played rugby for two hours a day, five days a week and games on Saturdays,” added Brydon.

“But I have to say I’m pretty sure that’s how I made it through my undergrad. To remain on the varsity team we had to maintain our GPA and our coaches had a no-weekday party rule – that was definitely beneficial in the long run.

“Playing that much rugby day in and day out, you either fall in or out of love with it. I was just lucky enough to love it.”

Returning home after completing her undergraduate degree, it was Brydon’s gap year that ultimately resulted in her involvement with Bermuda Rugby.

“I wish I could say I can home from my undergrad with grand plans to spread my passion for rugby, but the reason I started women’s rugby was kind of selfish,” she said.

“I came home for a year between my undergrad and physiotherapist school to try to make some money to support my way through school. I knew that I wanted to play rugby when I was in the United Kingdom but realised that if I took a year off, I would struggle to get back into to it, so I reached out to a couple of clubs on the island and the Mariners got back to me saying they were happy for me to come and train with the guys.

“After a couple of weeks training, word got out and after that it just snowballed. More girls and women kept showing up every week and we were able to divvy up between the four clubs on the island to establish a league.”

Brydon’s love for the game carried her through an extensive rugby career in multiple positions.

“The thing that I love most about rugby is that there is room on the pitch for everyone,” she added. “For the 12 years that I played, I managed to play in four different positions; starting in the back and transitioning to the forwards.

“It was never a case of you can or you can’t, but rather where do you work best on the pitch? A team has such diverse need from one position to the next that there really is room for everyone.”

Sidelined by a back injury while playing in London, she took a step back from the game to rehabilitate as life events took her away for the sport.

“During my rehab time, I got married, and pregnant – and well, you can’t really play rugby while you’re pregnant,” she said.

“Before I realised it, I had two children but never really felt like I had said goodbye to rugby.”

In an effort to reconnect with the game, she started volunteering as a pitchside physiotherapist on weekends and while that role is not quite the same as stepping back into the role of player, it is a challenge that Brydon has risen to.

“A couple of years ago, the former league physiotherapist reached out as she was hoping to step back and build her own practice, and I was happy to take over and help,” she added.

“When you’re playing, you’re out there to play hard and win. When you’re on the sidelines, you’re watching every hit, every breakdown, and every player on the pitch trying to make sure everyone is as safe as possible. It’s very nerve-racking!

“I have had the unfortunate experience of being on the side of the pitch for some serious injuries, but I like to think that all the physiotherapists that help each weekend are helping to minimise the risk of serious or long-term injury.”

While her new role in the game does not quite fill the void left by a rugby career cut short, it does allow Brydon to continue to be involved in the sporting community, but she feels to focus on the future of rugby requires taking a look back at the past.

“I hate to say it, but more than 20 years after I started playing, I feel like rugby is still very much seen as a men’s sport – there’s rugby and then there’s women’s rugby,” she said.

“I would love to see that change, but the change needs to be grassroots. Boys play rugby growing up and girls tend to fall into it along the way. To see a generation of girls that start in peewees, honing their skills as they grow would be amazing.

“Some of the bigger rugby nations are definitely on the right track, but as a small island, we need to be pushing harder for our girls. We need to lose the stigma that rugby, especially contact, is masculine and place our focus on the fact that rugby offers diverse opportunity for women of all shapes and sizes to be active and part of a team.”