England Women: Ellie Kildunne urges Red Roses to realise off-pitch dreams

England have also become more creative, with the Red Roses attacking with more ambition and vision since coach John Mitchell took charge at the end of 2023.

“We went through years of our driving maul and set-piece being our strongest point,” said Kildunne. “That has never been taken away – we still have such a strong set-piece, line-out, maul and scrum time – but now we look at other spaces as well.

“If a team starts marking us outside, we are going to go through the middle.

“If they start marking us down the middle, we are going to go on the outside.

“I guess I send luck to any team coming up against us.”

England are runaway leaders of the world rankings after 19 successive wins – a run stretching back to defeat in November 2022’s Rugby World Cup final by New Zealand.

Canada, second in the world, stand between England and a defence of their WXV title when the two meet on Sunday.

“They have speed all over the park – their forwards are pretty athletic as well – but it is nothing we don’t have,” Kildunne said.

“It is a case of getting into that arm wrestle and working out how we need to beat them.”