England head coach John Mitchell paid tribute to Ellie Kildunne after the full-back’s semi-final star-turn helped the Red Roses progress past France.
The hosts advanced to a Women’s Rugby World Cup final against Canada at Twickenham next week after a 35-17 victory over their fierce foes, surviving a real battle at Ashton Gate.
A hard-fought semi-final was firmly in the balance until Kildunne produced a sparkling solo score, collecting a ricochet over on the left touchline and weaving past five defenders to score in the right corner.
The 26-year-old had earlier got England going with a well-taken try down the left touchline in the opening minutes, and while she received treatment late on, the full-back suggested afterwards that she had just been dealing with a knee knock and cramp.
And Mitchell hailed Kildunne as a supreme talent as he looked ahead to a tough final test as England look to fulfil their home World Cup dream in front of a capacity crowd at Twickenham.
“She’s special, isn’t she?” Mitchell hailed. “She deserves her accolades, last year’s World Player of the Year.
“She’s still very, very young. She’s on posters and everyone says she is a superstar, but she’s a very, very humble girl. She’s not a woman that you box, she’s inspired by autonomy and only needs a little structure. She’s dealing with life very well.”
An imperfect attacking performance from England saw them let France control much of the game as they capitalised on their errors, with Les Bleues threatening for a long time to snap their 16-game losing streak against the Red Roses.
With their red-zone defence and forward pack to the fore, though, England came through to set up a rematch of the 2014 final – the last World Cup they won – with loosehead Hannah Botterman, lock Abbie Ward and centre Meg Jones all impressing.
“I knew they were going to come at us,” Mitchell said. “You could tell through the events during the week and the emotion they shared in their warm-up.
“We just had to win, fight our way out of it. We were nice and calm at half-time. It will do us a lot of good, that. We were just a bit inaccurate in the first half. This occasion does create different pressures and emotions and you just have to be able to handle it.”
A sold-out final will take place next Saturday 27 September, with France facing New Zealand in the third-place play-off beforehand.
