England full-back Ellie Kildunne on slicing defences and silencing sceptics

Kildunne has scored 10 tries in nine Tests for England

"If you are interested in something, no matter what it is, go at it at full speed ahead. Embrace it with both arms, hug it, love it and above all become passionate about it. Lukewarm is no good."

Those words, by author Roald Dahl, are in Ellie Kildunne's Instagram biography. They are on her phone's home screen. They are framed on her wall.

And they are in her game.

The 21-year-old might be the most thrilling runner in the English game right now. Men's, women's, 15s, sevens. Anywhere.

Two minutes into her debut for Wasps last month, she cut Harlequins' defence to ribbons with a searing 60-metre score.

Four minutes into her return to England action in the Women's Six Nations a fortnight ago, she jagged twice off her right foot to leave the Italian cover defence on the seat of their shorts.

To use Dahl's words, full speed ahead is all she knows.

"If I was asked to coach someone what I see when I get the ball in my hands, I don't know if I could," she told BBC Sport.

"I look to see if there are any mismatches. If I have a forward or a wing coming toward me, it will alter what I do. But it is very much instinct, looking up, seeing where the gaps are, where shoulders and hips have been turned and going at it 100%."

This weekend, she starts at full-back in the international against France. The aim is to allow her electric pace to frazzle broken-field defence.

To get to this stage, though, she has had to cling tight to her rugby ambitions. There have been plenty of times when it would have been easier to let go.

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As a nine-year-old growing up in West Yorkshire, she would play rugby league for Keighley Albion before crossing town and codes to play union for Keighley the next day. In both codes, she would be the only girl on the pitch. Every weekend, the opposition would give her the same look. Every weekend, she would give them the same treatment.

"Playing on a boys' team, I just loved the pressure of proving myself," she remembered.

"I wanted to make a statement. 'You are looking over your shoulder and laughing, but just wait, you won't be doing that next time we play.'

At her school, the girls played netball, the boys played rugby. That was how it was - until 11-year-old Kildunne arrived and said she would wear shorts rather than a skirt for games afternoon.

She was grudgingly given a shot in the B team. She scored a hat-trick.

"They moved me up to the A team and the boys didn't take it well. It is that age where some boys are 6ft 2in with a really deep voice and others are 4ft and could pass for eight years old," said Kildunne.

"The boy who went back into the B team was one of the six-footers. They were all: 'Oh no, we've lost George for a girl.' I went on to win back of the year though."

Those sceptics have long since turned to converts. Kildunne's school-mates saw her fly to Las Vegas to play sevens aged 17. They saw her scoring at Twickenham for England a year later. Plenty enviously clicked her jet-set montage of life on the 2020 Sevens circuit, playing around and playing hard all over the world.

Next year, they are likely to be watching her playing in the World Cup in New Zealand.

But they also know the hard work. The graft behind her craft. Others still need telling.

"I have had a lot of conversations, not to preach, not to rant, but to educate," Kildunne said. "If I am watching my brother play rugby, there are men on the sideline who don't understand anything about the women's game.

"And it isn't just men. I speak to friends at home and some of them can't believe how hard we train, how hard we tackle. But why wouldn't we?

"I speak about what I do with a lot of pride. And it is getting better. More women are standing up and saying: 'This is what we are; this is what we do.'

"With the BBC showing the game this weekend, dads are going to see role models for their daughters, girls are going to get interested. It opens opportunities, it reaches more people."

Whether the French defence can reach Kildunne, though, is another thing.

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