'It's my job to keep pushing through the glass ceiling': Ellie Kildunne and England ready for start of momentous year in York

Zoe Aldcroft is the reliable, trustworthy captain head coach John Mitchell has empowered with leading England into this Six Nations and a World Cup on home soil later this year, two tournaments that have the potential to usher in boom time for women’s rugby - provided the Red Roses win both.

If they are to do so, they will need not only the steel and resolve of Aldcroft in the pack, but also the fireworks of their play-makers, none other than Keighley’s Ellie Kildunne.

When England won a seventh straight Six Nations crown last year and third straight grand slam, the 25-year-old was named player of the tournament.

As if that wasn’t enough, she ended 2024 being name World Rugby’s Women’s 15s Player of the Year.

Mitchell has opted to hold her back in this opening encounter, choosing instead to unleash Kildunne on tiring Italian legs from the bench.

So the 8,000 fans in the sellout crowd at York’s LNER Community Stadium - a large number who will have come in from Scarborough and Malton and Norton where Aldcroft played, and Keighley and West Park Leeds where Kildunne learned the game - should at least get to see their two standard-bearers at the start of what could be a life-changing six months.

For Kildunne, her growing stature in the game is not something she takes for granted, on or off the pitch.

“2024 was not just a successful year for the team I play in but personally I was recognised and given awards that probably still haven’t sunk in yet," said Kildunne.

"Six Nations Player of the Championship and World Player of the Year sounds very cool but it’s not something I think about every day.

“I’m aware I might get a late hit from time to time, I’ve got a bit of a target on my back. But that pressure is a privilege, I’ve worked hard to get to where I am. It’s a special place to be because everyone wants to knock off the person at the top.

"It’s something I’m navigating but I’m very proud to be in this position because I know it comes with power - not something to be abused - but it’s something that if I navigate it right, I can inspire every room I walk into in ways that I haven’t been able to before.

“It’s my job to keep on pushing, smashing through the glass ceilings, and ensuring that as female rugby players we are seen in spaces we haven’t been seen before.

"It’s what we deserve, it’s what the next generation deserves and it’s what the previous generation deserved because they worked hard to get us to this place now.

“We’ve got the reins, and we can steer it to whatever place we can. I’m proud to be in that position and grateful as well.”

Last year could have been even better for Kildunne. After the Six Nations, she made the switch to Sevens to earn selection for the Olympics in Paris. But they flattered to deceive at the Stade de France and fell short of the medal rounds.

Nevertheless, it gave her a taste of how bright the spotlight will shine on them later in the year when England begin a World Cup that takes them to Sunderland, Brighton, Bristol and what they hope is a final on September 27 at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham.

She added: “The moment we ran out for the first game of the Olympics, we were the first game of the women’s competition, the men had played, and we’d seen the crowds for that. We are wired as women and female players that you are always going to be second best to that and not to expect that.

“It felt like Britain’s Got Talent, you are stood behind a wall and can’t actually see the crowd, you can hear them.

"The moment I came around that bit of wall and saw a sold-out stadium, I really can’t explain the feeling other than saying when kids get dizzy and can’t stop laughing, it felt like that. People wanted to watch us play. It’s our show time.”

Leeds-born Maddie Feaunati, 22, takes her place alongside Aldcroft in the back row. The Exeter Chiefs No 8 is earning her 11th cap.

Three other Yorkshire players are in the squad but miss out on a homecoming in York: Kirkbymoorside’s Tatyana Heard played in the World Cup final defeat to New Zealand in Auckland in November 2022, York-born prop Morwenna Talling was part of that squad and this squad, and Abi Burton of Castleford has earned a first call-up to an England camp for this year’s tournament.

They are all looking to Aldcroft for leadership and guidance. In 2021, she was the first from Yorkshire to be named World Rugby’s women’s player of the year.

It’s team accolades she wants in 2025.

“I have thought about lifting that trophy,” Aldcroft told The Yorkshire Post recently.

“It would be absolutely amazing and that is our goal. But it’s about the whole process of how do we get this right and that will lead us to that. So we are keeping our feet where we are.”

Join the Red Roses for the ultimate showdown against France at Allianz Stadium on Saturday, April 26th. Get your tickets now!