1/6 Elena King is a young woman who plays women's rugby in the Netherlands.
On January 1st of this year, her team faced off against a "women's" team that actually had a man on their roster.
In a previous match, Elena had seen this player cause a black eye, rib, and spine injury to her teammates, and she saw another "coming off the pitch crying because she was tackled so hard."
In the game on January 1st, it was Elena who was injured in a poorly executed tackle by the player. He popped her knee out of its socket, tearing her ACL and MCL in the process.
2/6 Elena received no support from the Dutch Rugby Association, who care much more about the feelings of this man than the safety of every single woman in the league.
Unless the Breda Dames Rugby club has more than one man on their "women's" roster, the player in question is Liam "Ashley" Mooney.
3/6 Although Mooney is certainly not the tallest player, he is still male (women are not short men) and displays the same strength and speed of any other average male.
Mooney's presence on the team is not only unfair, it presents a safety issue as well. Injuries by men on women's teams are not an "if it happens" risk, they are a "when it happens" guarantee. In this case, it already has, multiple times.
Watch him chase down and slam another woman to the ground here:
4/6 Before joining the Breda squad, Mooney was on the Amstelveense RC and helped them to a league championship last year.
5/6 Originally from Ireland, Mooney now lives in Amsterdam for university.
Rugby is not the only sport he plays there. He was also on the Amsterdam "women's" hurling team (a Gaelic sport similar to lacrosse).
The team came second at the 2024 Gaelic Games European Camogie tournament held in Vienna.
6/6 Read more about Elena's horrifying experience from her blog here: elenasprettylittleknee.com/2025/05/02/wor…
This case hits a bit close to home as I've experienced an ACL and MCL tear myself and know how painful it is and how long the recovery takes.
But Dutch Rugby is more than willing to let women suffer this rather than tell men "No. If you want to play, you can play with your male peers just like every other man."
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