Women's Six Nations: England rugby captain Sarah Hunter retires

Sarah Hunter - England's most capped ever rugby player - is giving up the sport this weekend

Sarah Hunter, who holds the world record for the most caps of any female rugby player, is leaving the sport this weekend.

She will be retiring from rugby after the Red Roses' Six Nations opener against Scotland.

She's been playing for England since 2007, and has appeared in 15 Six Nations tournaments, winning 10 of them.

Her final England game will be played in Newcastle, her home city where she first started playing rugby at nine years old.

A legacy for women's rugby

When Sarah Hunter started to play rugby for England, the Women's team had their own union, and were not allowed to wear the rose on their kit like the men do.

Now, the England Women's team are known as the Red Roses, and they are fully integrated into the England Rugby Football Union.

Sarah Hunter didn't even know England had a women's team until she was 16, despite playing rugby since she was nine, and her first England match was in front of a few hundred people.

Sarah Hunter captained England's grand slam win in the 2019 Six Nations

Now, she's going to be captaining the England team in her final game at a sold-out, 10,200 capacity stadium in Newcastle.

It's the same stadium that she used to sell matchday programmes at so she could watch the men's professional rugby when she was younger.

Since the start of her career she has received an MBE for her services to rugby, and was made the World Rugby Player of the Year in 2016.

Red Roses' success

In 2014, Sarah Hunter was a part of the England women's team that won the World Cup in Paris, in a final against Canada.

She described seeing the success of the team in newspapers the next day as a "penny-drop moment" where she realised how many people wanted to watch the game.

She also captained the England team in the 2022 World Cup final against New Zealand, which they lost.

She said she had "mixed emotions" around this match - as despite the loss it had been the most popular Women's Rugby World Cup to date.

The final was played in front of a record-breaking crowd of 42,579 in New Zealand.

The team are hoping to top that when England play France in the Six Nations in Twickenham in April - 35,000 tickets have already been sold.

What have people said about her?

England head coach Simon Middleton described Sarah Hunter as a "true England legend", and explained that she always took time to support others and do anything to help the women's game progress.

Her team-mates also sent their support, with fellow World Cup winner Emily Scarratt saying: "I don't know if there will ever be another Sarah Hunter, but I'm very grateful to have played alongside her."

Earlier this month, Hunter announced she would be co-captaining the England team through the Six Nations alongside Marlie Packer, who is expected to lead the team after Saturday's game.

Sarah Hunter said she could not think of a better person to take over the role.