Kildunne urges Red Roses to realise off-pitch dreams

Kildunne has scored four tries in England's WXV campaign so far

WXV: Canada v England

Venue: BC Place, Vancouver Date: Sunday, 12 October Kick-off: 03:00 BST

Coverage: Live on the BBC iPlayer, BBC Sport website and app

Ellie Kildunne has challenged her England team-mates to use their dominance of women's rugby to realise their off-pitch dreams.

The 25-year-old has scored 14 tries in nine England matches this year, winning the Six Nations player of the tournament award and becoming one of the Red Roses' standout stars.

Away from rugby, she has launched a podcast with wing Jess Breach, designed a campaigning clothing collection, started a creative platform for female athletes and shown off her modelling and photography skills on either side of the camera lens.

"We can become whatever we want to be," said Kildunne.

"If we want to become world champions, we can become world champions. If we want to be world champions with a clothing line on the side, you can do that as well.

"The spaces I have dipped into - if I am honest I have winged it, but it has pulled off so well, it has inspired other people, and me, to do more."

Kildunne was part of the Great Britain Sevens team at the Paris 2024 Olympics, where a series of viral posts from Ilona Maher sent the United States star's social media statistics soaring.

Maher began her Paris 2024 campaign with around 1m Instagram followers, but now has more than 4m, making her the most-followed rugby player, male or female, ever and a mainstream star in the United States.

Kildunne has become one of the faces of next summer's Rugby World Cup in England, starring in a recent video to mark a year until the tournament's start, but is determined to carve her own route.

"I can't look at Ilona Maher and say I am following in her footsteps," said Kildunne.

"We are completely different people, we have completely different followers, we are from different countries, so there is no point. She has done brilliantly, but it is not my story.

"You have to create your own journey."

Kildunne's England team-mates helped show off a clothing collection that highlighted findings from a Women's Sport Trust report

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."