Chloe in her Wallaroos outfit

IT’S far from the conventional route, but Chloe Butler had to lose her kit to wear a new one.

The former pin-up girl of the Lingerie Football League is part of Australia’s Wallaroos squad heading to France on Sunday to compete in the IRB Rugby World Cup.

And she insists it was lingerie football that got her here.

To see Chloe in her LFL outfit…..keep reading!

Herald Sun

The concept of women playing a full-contact sport in lingerie may not appeal to everyone, but Butler says it provides a platform for female athletes when other avenues have closed.

“It’s not for everyone and if you’re lucky enough to have an avenue in your chosen sport that allows you to stay professional, or stay elite, then I definitely back that, but the LFL is a different avenue,” Butler said.

“As women, it’s hard. You get to your 20’s and you finish school and all those athletic avenues close and you think, well, what next? I gave and sacrificed most of my childhood to be some kind of athlete, do I really just hang my hat here?”

“I think the LFL worldwide has offered that platform for other women who had injuries or had to change sports. I think it’s such a high calibre of athlete competing and that was why I joined it.”

It wasn’t just the platform that the LFL provided, but gridiron also gave Butler an opportunity to condition her body for rugby.

“These girls are fair dinkum athletes,” she said. “They’re hitting hard and there is great support in terms of strength and conditioning and the best of physio and training facilities in terms of developing athletes, so I just took the opportunity.”

“Had I not found the LFL and had a platform to keep me elite, in a contact sport and keep me game fit, I may not have been strong enough to be the player I am today.”

The LFL is played in front of packed stadiums in the US and has a global TV audience. Butler knew what she was signing up for when she joined — what she calls a “sex sells” marketing campaign — but she insists she never felt exploited.

“I am feminine, I am girly, and so I didn’t mind curling my hair and putting lipstick on,” Butler said.

“It’s just for one day that you dress up in that, the rest of the time you’re just a normal football athlete. You train in a normal outfit and you have your teammates, just like a normal football team.”

But rugby is Butler’s new chapter and she is excited to be part of one of the fastest growing female sports in the world.

She just hopes the rest of­ ­society pays attention.

“If society perhaps kept an eye out on what’s happening in the women’s sporting world they might just learn that they like it,” she said.

“Especially rugby, because we do hit pretty hard and that’s always entertaining — watching girls go at each other on the field. I can’t imagine that putting on the green and gold would ever get old and I’m just so privileged to be part of the movement in women’s rugby across the world.”