The Alaskan Kathryn Treder can barely contain her excitement on screen as we spoke in detail about her career to date and plenty of rugby to come her way before we even get to the World Cup here in August as the inaugural Women’s Elite Rugby domestic competition kicks off in the USA and Pacific Four to get USA test-match ready.
Treder, mainly a hooker but can play in the back-row, has spent the last two seasons in Premiership Women’s Rugby (PWR) in England with Loughborough Lightning (with an impressive 19 tries in 27 appearances), and has 25 caps for her country to date. As the clear first choice hooker the last time the USA Women played in WXV 1 in October 2024, Treder stands in good stead to be a part of the Women’s World Cup, where the USA will be playing two pool-stage matches in York against Australia and then Samoa. These are two of the six fixtures that York will be hosting in this summer’s tournament. With a record-breaking 270,000 tickets sold already following the last ticket window in November, organisers are encouraging people to get their tickets quickly to be a part of the event of the summer.
When we interviewed, I had just received a press release from World Rugby in which the USA Women’s schedule was confirmed before the World Cup. Therefore, my first question to Treder was to ask how excited she was to be playing across the States in Los Angeles, Missouri, North Carolina, and Washington DC to build up excitement and support behind the team before heading to England.
Treder responded: “Yeah I’m really looking forward to it, I think the matches that we have lined up are going to perfectly prepare us and build our confidence in our gameplan leading into the World Cup so I think it will be a perfect preparation. And hopefully, those matches too will garner some visibility and support for our fans back home to watch us in England.”
Like so many female rugby players across the world, Treder picked up rugby whilst at university, playing for Stanford University. So, I asked her how she discovered the game at Stanford.
Treder replied: “Yeah, it’s a really funny story… I didn’t really know it existed. I was on a visit to a university that I was considering attending and I sat on the bus, and a man sat next to me.” This man had just recently graduated and was visiting the college as an alumni. After chatting with this stranger, Treder spoke how, “we were just chatting, he was telling me about his experience in college, he told me that he played rugby and that sort of piqued my interest. In High School, I was a wrestler and a track & field runner and so I thought it would be a really good marriage of the two sports so that’s how I got into [rugby].”
Treder already has World Cup experience, playing in the delayed 2021 tournament in November 2022 in New Zealand so it’s easy to see why she is gunning for a second tournament. USA women are playing in the tournament’s opener versus hosts England in Sunderland but will then be playing Australia (known as the Walleroos) in York on the 30th August. Australia and the USA have developed quite the rivalry in recent years, and are fairly evenly matched across the board, it is likely that the game in York will decide as to which team progresses in Pool A as runners-up with hosts England set to qualify as group winners. Before the World Cup, the two teams will be facing off in Pacific Four.
Treder certainly knew of the significance of that fixture and the rivalry: “Australia is a team that we’ve gone back-and-forth with over our last 3 or 4 games, it’s sort… of lopsided either way. And I think it’s gonna be a really great competition for us, I’m really looking forward to that challenge. I think we both feel like we have something to prove so it’s going to be a really exciting game. I think that both teams as well are going to be pretty different than they were the last time we met, being that, you know, we had new players coming in, we’ve evolved… with USA’s exposure in WXV 1. Two really high-level teams, I think that has really accelerated and evolved our own game. So yeah… our USA/Australia game in the Pac 4 is going to be one to watch and it’s absolutely going to be one to watch for our pool game against them in York this fall”.
As she mentioned the fixture in York, it felt appropriate as I was set in the medieval common room of King’s Manor to ask Treder how she felt about her excitement of playing world-class rugby in a historic city like York.
Treder responded in the affirmative: “I’m absolutely looking forward to it. You know, having played in England and seeing the crowds that come out even just for club matches… I’m really looking forward to the crowd and the atmosphere that is built there for rugby, it’s such a rugby country so… that’s something that I’m really looking forward to. And on top of that, this is going to be the biggest World Cup to date. Even in terms of the ticket sales, it’s just something I’m really looking forward to.”
Reflecting on the opportunity to play in a tournament that is set to break records and make women’s rugby more mainstream than ever before, I then asked Treder how much would it mean to her if she got that chance to play a part in that.
Treder: ‘I think that’s a really exciting and gratifying experience, as a women’s rugby player I think we have had to give up and sacrifice a lot of things to get to where we are today. Women’s sport is having such a huge moment right now and it’s a really exciting time to be riding that wave of the hype of women’s sports. And, yeah, I can’t help but think of all of the people, all of the women, all of the rugby players that came before me and set up this platform for us to get this sort of recognition that I think women’s sport deserves.”
I finished the interview to get Treder’s thoughts on her experiences playing with Loughborough Lightning in the PWR. Although their start of the season was far from ideal, the run-in was really strong for Loughborough, a team which since its elevation to the top division in 2017 have always struggled to deliver when on paper their team is packed with stars like England’s Emily Scaratt and Sadia Kabeya, Scotland’s Helen Nelson and Canada’s Courtney Holtkamp. Treder reflected on the season, her rivalry for the hooker jersey with Scotland’s Elis Martin and how she thinks that will set her up for the rest of her season with the San Franciscan Bay Breakers in WER, and with the national team.
Treder: I have learnt a lot of really good lessons having played for Lightning… having some comeback wins against some teams that the club has never beaten before. In the second half of the season we really upset some of the top four teams: Bristol and Saracens, having beaten them for the first time… So, I think it’s really taught me how to shine through as an underdog and push through really difficult moments, really digging deep to find the belief in ourselves and also understanding the lesson that I think it’s really all about which team shows up on the day.
And I think that’s a big lesson going into the Rugby World Cup because [the USA] are the underdogs. And so for our matches… the opening match of the tournament against England… yeah I always say it’s about who shows up on the day and I think that’s a great lesson learned with [Loughborough] Lightning in the PWR. And yeah, Elis is also really wonderful, she’s a wonderful teammate off the field. It’s really exciting to have competition for that shirt because I think competition only makes you better… pressure makes you thrive… I think I’m already intrinsically motivated but it’s really helpful to have that competition.”
Tickets for the Rugby World Cup are available to purchase via tickets.rugbyworldcup.com, on a first come, first served basis until 11:00 GMT on Friday, 28 March. All the latest tournament news, including the full match schedule, can be found at rugbyworldcup.com/2025.