Red Roses captain Meg Jones opens up on starting a family with rugby star fiancée

The England centre, 29, has revealed the couple have already taken the first steps in their fertility journey.

Jones and Quansah, who represented Team GB together at the Tokyo Olympics, visited a fertility clinic to have their egg counts checked.

They had initially considered freezing their eggs but were advised that they could wait.

“We were looking to freeze, but actually the advice was we don’t need to freeze yet so we can probably wait till after the wedding,” Jones told BBC Sport.

“That’s where we were going to look to conceive.”

Jones and Quansah's relationship stretches back several years, with the pair first meeting through rugby circles at Loughborough.

Both went on to become international sevens stars and represented Great Britain at the Tokyo Olympics, where the team finished fourth.

Quansah initially pursued athletics and competed alongside some of Britain's leading young athletes before switching to rugby while at university.

She progressed remarkably quickly, joining the England Sevens programme within six months of taking up the sport.

The couple are now preparing to get married, with starting a family firmly part of their plans.

Jones has also used her own experience to call for greater fertility support for professional rugby players.

The Red Roses skipper believes women should not feel forced to choose between pursuing an elite sporting career and their opportunity to have children.

“Why should my opportunity to have a family be taken away from me because I want to pursue my career?” she said.

Her comments come as other sports begin offering greater help.

The Spanish football federation and Chelsea have introduced financial support around fertility treatment, including egg freezing. Jones believes rugby should consider following their lead.

England teammate Hannah Botterman has also spoken about the subject after Jones shared her experience.

Botterman and her partner, Wales international Georgia Evans, have been exploring their own IVF journey.

The RFU currently provides paid leave for fertility treatment but does not fund the treatment itself. It has indicated that it is open to looking at additional support.

For Jones, speaking publicly is also about making conversations around fertility more normal for female athletes.

The Red Roses captain said she wants to share her own journey as she balances the next stage of her rugby career with marriage and plans for a family.

Botterman and Evans aren't the only high-profile rugby couple connected to the Red Roses. A number of England's biggest names have partners with their own impressive sporting careers, including World Cup winners, Olympians and coaches.

England stars Marlie Packer and Rosie Galligan announced their engagement in 2025, with their relationship bringing together two members of the Red Roses' World Cup-winning squad.

Packer has been one of the defining England players of her generation, winning more than 100 caps and captaining her country, while second-row Galligan completed a remarkable journey back to the top of the sport after previously suffering a serious ankle injury and overcoming meningitis.

The couple announced another major piece of news in 2026, revealing that Galligan was pregnant with their first child together. The baby is due in October, while Packer already has a son, Oliver, with former partner Natasha.

England star Claudia MacDonald and Ireland international Cliodhna Moloney-MacDonald have one of the most fascinating relationships in Test rugby.

The pair met through rugby at Exeter Chiefs and married in the summer of 2025, with both continuing their international careers on opposite sides of the Irish Sea.

That created an unusual situation during the 2026 Women's Six Nations when they prepared to face each other at Test level for the first time. MacDonald was representing England while hooker Moloney-MacDonald was lining up for Ireland, meaning married life briefly had to take a back seat to international rivalry.

Botterman and Evans announced their engagement at the beginning of July, having previously made their relationship public.

The pair were actually rivals on the international stage at last year’s World Cup, with Botterman part of the England squad that went all the way and lifted the trophy on home soil.

Now the 27-year-old loosehead is finally ready to pull on an England shirt again.

World Cup-winning captain Zoe Aldcroft married rugby coach Luke Stratford in the summer of 2024 after the pair had been together for several years.

Stratford has built his own career within the game and works as a scrum coach, meaning rugby remains a significant part of life for both of them away from the international stage.

Aldcroft subsequently led England to World Cup glory at Twickenham in 2025, cementing her place among the leading figures in the women's game.

The couple then revealed another major milestone in 2026, announcing that they were expecting their first child. The pregnancy meant Aldcroft was unavailable for England's Six Nations campaign after an extraordinary period that had seen her captain her country to a home World Cup triumph.

England playmaker Holly Aitchison is dating fellow Bristol Bears player Rich Lane, giving the Red Roses another relationship with strong club-rugby connections.

The pair appeared to make their relationship public on social media, with Aitchison's teammates having some fun in the comments about the couple's apparent "soft launch".

Lane has been a regular performer for Bristol's men's side after initially joining the club from Bedford Blues, while Aitchison has established herself as a key figure for both Bristol and England.

There's particularly good timing for this piece, too. Aitchison is set to win her 50th England cap against Australia this weekend, on the same afternoon that former partner Botterman is poised to make her long-awaited international comeback.