'Super special': Scarborough's Zoe Aldcroft revels in leading England to victory in York

Zoe Aldcroft hailed a “super special” moment in her career after leading England out into a capacity crowd in York and to an opening victory of their Six Nations title defence.

The 28-year-old from Scarborough, who learnt the game at her local club before moving onto Malton and Norton and then West Park Leeds, has been handed the distinct honour of captaining England in the year they host a World Cup.

England's flanker Zoe Aldcroft (R) takes her place in a scrum during the Women's Six Nations international rugby union match between England and Italy at the LNER Community Stadium in York (Picture: PAUL ELLIS/AFP via Getty Images)

placeholder image — England's flanker Zoe Aldcroft (R) takes her place in a scrum during the Women's Six Nations international rugby union match between England and Italy at the LNER Community Stadium in York (Picture: PAUL ELLIS/AFP via Getty Images)

As expected for a team that has won 30 games in a row, World Cup year began with a routine 38-5 victory over Italy in front of more than 8,000 packed into the LNER Community Stadium.

After playing the full 80 minutes of her 59th cap, the England captain spent nearly an hour signing autographs and talking with the dozens of fans in Scarborough RUFC apparel who had made the trip along the A64 to support her.

England's Emily Scarratt scores their second try during the Guinness Women's Six Nations match against Italy at the LNER Community Stadium, York. (Picture: Mike Egerton/PA Wire)

"It was super special,” Aldcroft said of the occasion.

“The crowd here were fantastic and there were a lot of familiar faces in the crowd which was lovely to see.”

But she has not been picked to lead England for nostalgia purposes, Aldcroft’s consistency and reliability often cited by head coach John Mitchell as the reason he handed her such an enormous responsibility in World Cup year.

With that in mind, Aldcroft knows there is much more to come from England as the Six Nations continues next Saturday against Wales in Cardiff, particularly after they burst out of the blocks with two tries in the first 10 minutes and five tries in the first half, only to slow considerably in the second period, scoring only once more in the dying embers of the game.

Aldcroft added: “The first half was really good, we just then struggled with a little bit of execution in that second half. But a really good start to the Six Nations. Italy had some good carriers coming at us in the second half, maybe we could have matched that and gone a bit harder but I was super proud of our girls’ efforts, especially the debutants.

“It was a good start for us, we’ll work on everything that happened in the second half today, it’s just little things but we’ll grow on that.”

Sunday in York wasn’t her maiden time captaining England having done so on sporadic occasions, but it was her first since being installed as the leader in World Cup year and she knows there is scope for her own personal growth in that role as well.

“I’m always looking for improvement,” said Aldcroft, “so hopefully I will get chance to have a little bit of a rethink of how I did this week and see what I can do next week to improve.”

Mitchell, who has already picked his team for Wales next week and informed the players to give them clarity and avoid anxiety, said of the performance: "I thought it was really good.

"The objective was to build pressure on Italy and I thought we got some really good examples of that. We started really well, but we also knew we'd go through a period of the game when we'd have to work our way through it.

“But generally I thought we stuck at it and defensively we were very good."