By Will Heaver

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Ellie Kildunne is a shining light in the fullback jersey for the Red Roses and has been throughout her entire career.

The 26-year-old has scored 42 tries in 56 games, a superb strike rate.

She is in battle with her teammates, Jess Breach and Abby Dow, to be the leading try scorer of all time for the Red Roses. It isn’t just try scoring where Kildunne excels; her short kicking game and playmaking are also world class.

Her role at fullback allows her to pop up anywhere on the field, in the wide channels or in and around the breakdown. Kildunne plays on instinct, which makes her incredibly difficult to play against.

Her brilliant footwork often bamboozles opposition defences and allows her to make so many line breaks.

The Roald Dahl quote ‘Lukewarm is no good’ is a phrase that Kildunne uses to describe how she trains and plays.

“Everyone can do something at lukewarm,” she says. “It is easy, and getting out of that mindset is hard.”

“I have twisted the phrase and helped it mould a lot of my decisions and things I do in my life as I try to do everything at 100 per cent.”

Kildunne grew up in West Yorkshire and played football and both codes of rugby growing up.

She played League for Keighley Albion and Union for Keighley RUFC from the age of seven. Like many of the Red Roses, she was often the only girl on the pitch.

She would often play league on a Saturday morning, football in the afternoon, and then Union on a Sunday.

Kildunne told the Overlap Rugby podcast that she didn’t watch rugby at all growing up; instead, she was a huge Liverpool fan, with Fernando Torres being an early hero.

At the age of 14, Kildunne had a choice; unable to play football or rugby with the boys anymore, she had to pick a sport. She was selected to play rugby a year up for the North of England.

“I played with girls who were a bit older than me, who I’m now playing for England with, and I had such a good time,” she says.

Kildunne was still a novice to the 15-a-side game, as she was more interested in playing and watching Sevens, so when she was first called up to play a 15 a-side game she didn’t know the rules but adjusted quickly and was fast to show her talent.

She then made the big decision to go to Hartpury College at 16, and that was where she flourished.

She made her debut for the Red Roses at just 18 years old against Canada in the autumn of 2017 in Barnet.

She was called into the squad as a fullback despite having not played the position before.

While on camp she was also still studying for her A-Levels and had got grades that allowed her to go to the University of St Mary’s in West London. She graduated from her course in Sport and Exercise Science this year.

Kildunne’s first professional contract was for Sevens, signed at the age of 19. The Yorkshire woman was also offered a 15s contract, but the opportunity to play at an Olympics was too good to turn down.

Her Sevens journey was a bumpy ride as she dealt with shin splints for two years, and then Covid hit and she was made redundant.

All of a sudden she was scrambling for bar work and no longer a professional, while also juggling her university studies. Then, ahead of the 2021 World Cup, Kildunne was offered a 15s contract by then coach Simon Middleton, with the caveat that she would not be able to play at the Tokyo Games.

Middleton departed in 2023 and was replaced by current coach John Mitchell, whom Kildunne approached and asked if she could go and play in Paris in 2024.

“Sevens helps me be the best player I can be, it isolates all your skills on the field and pushes you to be better,” she said.

Mitchell agreed to let Kildunne go and play in Paris, and it was an experience she absolutely loved.

“Walking around the village felt like I was in an AI simulation, every nation was walking around in their own kit. You could walk into Costa and get coffee for free!”

“One of my favourite games was guessing what sport the athletes did as they walked round the village.”

Along with Torres, Kildunne’s idols include Olympian Jess Ennis-Hill, Black Ferns winger Portia Woodman and Red Roses team-mate Emily Scarratt.

Her mum was also crucial in her development, making sure she still got her academic grades as well as performing on the sports pitch. She credits her mum for giving her the confidence to throw herself into everything.

Kildunne hasn’t tried to model her game on any particular player’s game but instead tries to emulate certain players’ skills.

“I’m never going to be like Jason Robinson or Quade Cooper, and Simon Middleton wanted me to be the queen of air like Freddie Steward, but that wasn’t what I was like as a player either. So it was important I took aspects of different people’s games and combined them.”

Kildunne, much like a few of her Red Roses team-mates, is very active on social media and wants to create content that inspires and use her voice to connect with people.

She has said she enjoys showing her hundreds of thousands of followers across TikTok and Instagram “what her life looks like and that she wants people to understand her more”.

She has also become a photographer, with her pictures put across her socials.

“My pictures allow me to see the beautiful side of everything,” she says.

Win the World Cup final and doubtless Kildunne will have plenty more to post.