- From pitch to plate: chilled meals in Asda stores will support women’s rugby
- Women’s six nations tournament runs until May 17
Leading chilled meals manufacturer Oscar Mayer is announcing a bold new partnership celebrating performance and equity in sport with the launch of Players’ World Kitchen, a pioneering new chilled meal range created by elite women’s rugby union players.
As the Women’s Six Nations tournament kicks off, this new range goes far beyond traditional convenience food. Each recipe has been crafted by leading rugby players Carys Cox, Poppy Cleall and Maud Muir, combining bold flavour with nutritious ingredients to create satisfying home-cooked style meals created by busy women participating in elite-level rugby.
Inspired by their favourite home-cooked dishes that fit perfectly around their own training and matchday preparation, each meal has been developed by the athletes themselves at the Oscar Mayer HQ in Wrexham.
- Carys Cox – Chicken, Chorizo & Prawn Paella
- Poppy Cleall – Slow Cooked Beef Ragu Pasta
- Maud Muir – Greek Style Chicken & Lamb with Vegetable Pilaf
Crucially, the initiative aims to address the financial inequality that still exists in women’s sport. By placing players at the heart of the product, the collaboration introduces a new royalty model, ensuring the players directly benefit from every meal sold that they helped design, with five per cent of all sales going directly back to them.
The launch arrives at a time of unprecedented momentum for women’s sport. Global revenues were projected to reach $2.35 billion in 2025 (ESPN), reflecting soaring audiences, increased investment and landmark moments such as the Women’s Rugby World Cup, which drew record-breaking crowds worldwide.
Yet despite this growth, many female athletes still earn only a fraction of their male counterparts and often balance elite competition alongside work, study or family life.
The range also introduces a new QR barcode system powered by GS1, allowing consumers to scan products to access a wealth of information on each product, ranging from sustainability and recycling information, allergen and nutritional details, product origin and traceability as well as user instructions.
Ex-England and current Saracens player Poppy Cleall said: “I loved the whole process, especially getting into the kitchen at Oscar Mayer HQ and bringing a dish to life that reflects what I’d cook at home. It’s exciting to see it go into the shops, but what really matters is that it supports women in sport and helps drive the game forward.”
Welsh international Carys Cox said: “Being part of Players’ World Kitchen has been brilliant. We worked with Oscar Mayer to create dishes we actually eat around training – for me, something full of flavour but practical day-to-day. Seeing it on shelves is really special, but even more so knowing it directly supports us as players and gives something back to women’s rugby.”
England prop Maud Muir said: “It’s been great to create something that reflects what we actually eat as players, but also has a real impact beyond rugby. With the support of the RPA, and with the momentum building around the Rugby World Cup, this is exactly the kind of project that helps push the women’s game forward.”
Ian Toal, Oscar Mayer CEO said: “The business already had a strong reputation for launching ground-breaking branded chilled meals, but the creation and launch of our own Players’ World Kitchen brand is a real game-changer for us.
“Not only did we want to have greater creative control of our future launch opportunities with our own brand, we were keen to lock into the world of sport and create dishes that reflected the taste and nutritional preferences of our sporting heroes.
“What a better way to kick off the brand by supporting women’s rugby and giving something back into a burgeoning women’s sport. It was great to have the athletes at Oscar Mayer HQ working with our chef development teams in creating these flavoursome dishes. We really hope that shoppers will be delighted to try them out once they arrive in store, safe in the knowledge that they taste great and also are giving something back to support women’s rugby.”
Players World Kitchen from Oscar Mayer will be arriving in Asda stores by the end of May. RRP is £4.25 and pack weight for the three SKUs is 400g
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