England’s semi-final star Ellie Kildunne: ‘My secret? I don’t like being tackled’

Ellie Kildunne is in an uncooperative mood. It is about an hour after England have booked their spot in the Women’s Rugby World Cup final and the tournament’s poster girl is fielding a question from a French journalist enquiring as to the secret to her attacking success.

The man from L’Equipe does not get the answer he desires. “I don’t want to give my secret away before a final because I don’t know who is reading this,” Kildunne laughs, before soon switching back into team-first mode. “But there is no secret. I’m part of a very, very good team and it’s people who put me in gaps. If the gap is not there, I’ll put someone else into it. There’s no secret in being in a good team.”

Disappointed but amused, the scribe looks away before Kildunne lets him in a little. “Also, I don’t like being tackled. So I run away from people.”

It is a succinct description but one that feels appropriate given the full-back’s semi-final involvements. It may have been England’s defensive effort and forward might that tilted a tremendous tussle with France their way but there was one face, invariably, on the television screens and back pages on Sunday morning as the reigning World Player of the Year dazzled again. If her first try was a case of finishing off some superb handling from three forwards inside her, her second was a thing of individual brilliance as she careered past five French defenders and a fair few teammates, too.

No doubt there would have been some frustrated faces had she not gone over given the passing options eschewed; instead, the embrace of her England teammates caused some cramp in Kildunne’s right thigh. “I better get over the line,” the full-back recalls as to what was rushing through her head as she tore across Bristol and seemingly half of Somerset, too.

“I said it after the match but anyone in the team could have got player of the match. I don’t think I necessarily deserved it, I just finished something that the rest of the team made. The forwards were outstanding today, you look at Meg Jones and the turnovers she was making. That’s what we do as a back three, we finish what the rest of the girls start. It’s incredible when the crowd light up but it is a full team effort.”

A knock of knees late on with a French opponent is cause for slight concern heading into the week of the final against Canada but Kildunne is confident she will be fit and firing for a defining day at a full Twickenham. Even among the Red Roses, her profile and personality seem to connect uniquely with the audience; her name consistently gets the loudest cheer pre-match, while the appearance of her image on the big screen while absent with a concussion during the quarter-final roused a reception of its own.

Three years ago in New Zealand, Kildunne had been a bit-part figure before the final, called in to start against the Black Ferns after injury to Helena Rowland. She was always likely to be more central of stage on home soil given how she has seized the 15 shirt since, and will not be occupying herself overly with the reflections on England’s last defeat as they look to go one step further.

“It’s a different tournament, we’re a different team, we’re against a different opposition,” she says. “At the end of the day, it’s a World Cup final, and you don’t prepare for a World Cup final in the last week – you prepare over the last three years.

“We’re prepared. There is nothing more we can do to be prepared for a World Cup final. We’ve put the hard work in and we’ll carry on putting the hard work in this week, it’s not finished. We back each other and there is a bond in the team like no environment or team I’ve ever been a part of.”

Kildunne’s confidence in her teammates is one reason why she is in a relaxed headspace; equally important is a belief she repeatedly expresses in a sort of pre-destiny. “I trust what is written for me,” she says as the concussion is mentioned, a theme she revisits as she considers whether a tough test against France will serve England well in the decider.

“We watched the [Canada] game and they are a good outfit. No 1 vs No 2 in the world is a good watch for anyone who wants to get into rugby for the first time or if you are a seasoned watcher. We train really hard and put pressure on each other every day to keep getting better, so we are focused very much on us. Anything that comes to us is written for us, we’ve just got to play it out and stick to our process.”

So what then, Ellie, might be written for England in next week’s final? “I’ll guess we’ll have to see…”