Comment: Ellie Kildunne powers Red Roses into World Cup final but memories of South Africa 2019 keep England’s feet firmly on ground
England celebrate Women's Rugby World Cup semi-final win over France.
One comment stood out after the cheers finally died down for host nation England surviving a bumpy ride to reach the Women’s World Cup final and justify their number one global ranking.
It came from Hannah Botterman, the no-nonsense prop who played such a pivotal role in winning the arm wrestle which did more to decide the contest against France than even Ellie Kildunne’s two sparkling tries.
“There’ll be no celebration, we’ve not won anything,” insisted Botterman, who made 11 tackles, won three turnovers, assisted in a try and was not altogether pleased to lose out on player of the match honours to Kildunne after the 35-17 win.
Canada awaits
It was a clear indication that for all the hype surrounding these Red Roses, hard earned and deserved as it is on account of winning 62 of their 63 matches since 2019, this group understands what still lies ahead.
That one sentence, uttered with a fixed expression, told us they had been paying attention on Friday when Canada took six-time champions New Zealand apart with five tries in 43 minutes to book their place in next Saturday’s sold-out Twickenham showpiece.
It was a clear acknowledgment that while understandably chuffed with shouldering a weight of expectation which could well have crushed a less resilient side, they still have to answer the big question.
“We’ve earned the right for another week,” said Meg Jones later, and that is exactly the way to look at it. For this is familiar ground. England have reached the last six finals. It is what follows that has been the problem. All but one of those games they have lost.
For a rugby country with their resources that is a poor return. And now they face an opponent who have crowdfunded to get here and are as hungry to prove a point as it is possible to be.
On the evidence of these two semi-finals Canada are the team to beat, but England coach John Mitchell has been around long enough to understand that just because the Maple Leafs did a number on the Black Ferns doesn’t mean the trophy is theirs.
He knows this because in 2019 he was Eddie Jones’ defence coach at the men’s World Cup in Japan where England produced one of their greatest performances to beat the All Blacks in the semi-finals.
Seven days later they crashed and burned against South Africa when the prizes were handed out.
“It will be a different game on the weekend,” the bespectacled Kiwi said, matter of factly. “Canada are playing great rugby, we’re playing very effective rugby. We’ve had to fight this whole tournament.”
We saw that at a jam-packed Ashton Gate in Bristol where England made 202 tackles to 88 by France. Where they had almost half the carries and considerably less than half the possession.
They triumphed because Botterman and Jones won the day of the jackal, because France blew countless chances when they were in the ascendancy and because Kildunne was dressed in white rather than blue.
The Harlequins full-back came into the game as world player of the year but with the rugby world acclaiming Canada lock Sophie de Goede as the real world number one.
Kildunne had her status further questioned by pundits correctly pointing out that she has been some way off her best since opening night against the United States.
“Ellie needs to have a big game especially after the way she played against Australia,” World Cup winner Maggie Alphonsi said on the BBC before kick-off.
“She can have a few errors in her,” agreed Simon Middleton, the former England head coach. “She can be absolutely outstanding or she can be absolutely terrible at times.”
At times like this great players stand up and silence the noise. Kildunne did just that. Three minutes in she set the tone by returning a punt past three hapless defenders. Two minutes later she was on the scoreboard.
England attacked the short side and when Botterman fed her the ball, Kildunne hared away for the opening try.
Replays showed it should not have been awarded as the ball clearly knocked forward off Natasha Hunt’s boot before she distributed from the base of the ruck.
But the officials missed that and Kildunne’s tail was up. The sides then exchanged two tries apiece in the middle part of a game in which defence was the only area of the game England will reflect on with any fondness.
Into the final quarter and with the outcome still just about in the balance Zoe Harrison kicked ahead. Marine Menager tried to control the ball with a foot but only succeeded in prodding it into the path of the onrushing Kildunne.
Without breaking stride the leggy full-back picked up, stepped inside three defenders and scorched to the line on an unstoppable diagonal run.
Pressure on Kildunne
“She didn’t have a great last game, she was poor by her standards and there was a lot of pressure on Ellie today,” watching former England captain Katy Daley-McLean said. “But she’s shown up. She’s been very good.”
By the end Kildunne had run for a total of 273 metres on 15 carries. She looked a shade embarrassed to have “stolen” the MVP award, well aware Botterman and Jones had done more at the coal face to secure the result.
But nobody really minded. For England this was not about minor trinkets, it was about punching their ticket to Twickenham and the opportunity to land the biggest prize of all a week from now.
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