Comment: Ellie Kildunne brings the World Cup ‘star dust’ for Red Roses but Ilona Maher-inspired USA show ‘attitude in spades’
England celebrate Women's Rugby World Cup victory over USA.
It was the night Ellie Kildunne had dreamed of since watching Jess Ennis-Hill win Olympic gold at London 2012 and setting herself the goal of being successful like her.
So inspired was she seeing her idol deliver as Face of a home Games on the biggest stage of her life that she wrote a 6,000-word Year 8 assignment on the heptathlete.
13 years on Kildunne is reigning world player of the year and on an historic evening in Sunderland lived up to her billing – stepping out in a home World Cup and producing the sort of performance Ennis-Hill would be proud to call her own.
Standout player
The Harlequins full-back claimed player of the match honours, scoring two tries, assisting two more and running for a game-high 153 metres as the world’s number one ranked team eased to a 28th successive win.
England were far from flawless, but having had 1014 days since unexpectedly losing the last World Cup final to dwell on that only loss in 58 matches, they will take this as an opening effort.
It was a massive occasion for the Red Roses, more so for women’s rugby as a sport. A crowd of 42,723 almost matched the total attendance for the 2017 tournament.
Ultimately, England won comfortably, as they pretty much always do. Kildunne provided the star dust, racing 70 metres for one try, exchanging a 1-2 with a team mate as she went, then muscling her way to the line for a second.
She also showed sublime footballing skill to control a ball on her knee at pace before nonchalantly feeding another scoring pass inside.
Yet, for a good while it was more Stadium of Fright than Light as the United States, featuring the irrepressible Ilona Maher, made life distinctly uncomfortable for their hosts.
England failed to catch any of the first three restarts, fumbled a line-out, spilled passes, generally looked as though they had the weight of the world on their shoulders.
World Rugby’s ‘loud and clear’ warning to keyboard warriors ahead of Women’s Rugby World Cup
Granted, Sadia Kabeya and Hannah Botterman claimed first quarter tries, but they were defensively at sixes and sevens as Erica Jarrell-Searcy galloped away on 27 minutes to make it a one-score game.
Who knows where the game would have gone from there had Alev Kelter not been controversially sin-binned by South African referee Aimee Barrett-Theron for deliberately knocking the ball out of the hands of England scrum-half Natasha Hunt.
Katy Daley-McLean, who captained England to their only World Cup triumph in 2014, felt a yellow card was unduly harsh and ruined the contest, as Maud Muir and Kildunne helped themselves to converted tries with the visitors down to 14.
And while nobody could have failed to appreciate Kildunne’s try, swapping passes at high speed with Abbie Dow, it was hard to argue that the sin-binning effectively ended the contest.
Sure, England were never going to lose this match, not with a scrum as powerful as theirs against opponents who had won only one game in six this year. But the US brought attitude in spades, inspired by Maher in bright red lipstick.
Rugby’s most followed player delighted her 8.8 million social media disciples with two barnstorming runs and the enthusiasm she showed in attack was mirrored by her team-mates in defence as they frustrated England on the try line.
Kelter’s time in the bin, however, cost them 14 points and a 28-7 half-time score was only going to grow as the Americans tired and England warmed to the task.
Against better opposition – by which we can only mean New Zealand, Canada or France – John Mitchell’s side may have paid a heavier price for their early inaccuracy.
Against the 10th ranked US they had time and space to regroup, iron out the creases, and romp away in the most one-sided of second halves.
Meg Jones stepped up and set the tone, but it was Kildunne who really caught the eye.
11-try victory
The 25-year old bagged her second try on 48 minutes, winning a race to the ball after Jess Breach kicked through, and using her strength to muscle it over the line.
She then gave up a certain hat-trick by feeding Breach her first try when it looked easier to score herself. Before counter-attacking at pace, chipping ahead, controlling the ball on her knee and flicking it inside for Breach to score again.
It was wonderful stuff and meant that by the end England had 11 tries to their name and fans were leaving the ground already anointing them as World Cup winners.
Kildunne was having none of that. “We’ve got to be where our feet are,” she said once and then repeated it for the hard of hearing. There will undoubtedly be tougher tests ahead, but this was a decent start.