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#Post#: 151244--------------------------------------------------
England full-back Ellie Kildunne has urged other unions to
follow the Rugby Football Union’s world-leading support of it
DIR By: deadlyfrom5yardsout
Date: March 20, 2026, 7:09 am
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England full-back Ellie Kildunne has urged other unions to
follow the Rugby Football Union’s world-leading support of its
female players ahead of the Women’s Six Nations.
Kildunne is expected to feature in England’s opening match of
the championship when they face Ireland at Allianz Stadium on
April 11, which will be their first game since being crowned
world champions.
More than 66,000 tickets have already been sold for the
occasion, which will set a new attendance for a Women’s Six
Nations match, with Kildunne likely to come up against her
Harlequins team-mate Aoife Wafer.
Wafer has emerged as a huge force in Irish women’s rugby but, in
accordance with Irish Rugby Football Union rules, had to forfeit
her international contract after signing for the Premiership
Women’s Rugby club last summer.
“We’ve been massively supported by the Rugby Football Union and
you can only hope that that can be recognised across other
unions as well,” Kildunne told Telegraph Sport.
“It isn’t something you think about because when the whistle
goes you’re playing rugby against each other. Ireland are still
a phenomenal team. Canada are the same – they got to a World Cup
final and they’ve not been funded in the way we have in England
– but that doesn’t mean you can’t be a World Cup champion or a
Six Nations champion. You wish that unions would see that
opportunity and back the girls as much as they deserve. They
deserve more. I hope for equality within women’s rugby, full
stop.”
Kildunne and Wafer locked horns when England first hosted
Ireland at the home of English rugby in 2024, where the visitors
were thrashed 88-10 in front of 48,778 fans. But given Ireland’s
improvement – Scott Bemand’s side beat five-time World Cup
winners New Zealand in 2024 in WXV – the hope is that next
month’s contest will be more of a competitive spectacle.
“That was the first time a lot of us had played in a big
stadium,” Wafer said. “I think it got to a lot of the girls,
walking in and being surrounded by people. The whole stadium was
screaming for the Red Roses and for a lot of the girls it was
the first time they’d experienced a crowd that big.”
In a significant step forward, Ireland women will play at the
Aviva Stadium this year for the first time in over a decade when
they host Scotland on the final day of the championship.
“Hopefully that’ll be a near sell-out because we’re at the stage
where we deserve it,” Wafer said.
“When we played the Kiwis in Brighton at the World Cup there
were like 27,000 Irish people there. We’d go out for coffee and
you’d go out with a list of like 20 coffee orders because nobody
wanted to leave the hotel as you’d get mobbed as soon as you
walked out the door. But that 27,000 hasn’t yet been translated
into our stadiums, so I think the Six Nations will be important
for us to try and build on that.”
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