Women’s World Cup final preview: Kildunne in for favourites England

Saturday will see the playing of the ninth women’s Rugby World Cup final, and with two somewhat unsurprising teams as the cast.

Of the 18 final places that there have been in women’s World Cup history, England and New Zealand have shared 14 places between them.

England have reached every final this century, while New Zealand have only failed to reach one final since 1998, and have never lost in the showpiece event.

But with professionalism having been instituted, soaring attendances and a 30-match winning run, England will surely go into a world cup final against the Black Ferns as favourites for the first time, having been beaten by them in the 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2017 finals.

England have made changes to the team that edged out Canada, with all of them in the backline.

Ellie Kildunne gets the call at 15 to replace the injured Helena Rowland, while Lydia Thompson starts at 14, and a new centre pairing sees Holly Aitchison team up with Emily Scarratt.

For the Black Ferns, Charmaine McMenamin is the only player to come in, as she replaces Liana Mikaele-Tu’u at number eight, who is ruled out with a thumb injury.

“There can be no bigger challenge in sport than to play the world champions in their own back yard in front of a sellout crowd – 99.9% of which will be forming part of the opposition,” England boss Simon Middleton said.

“Great teams don’t fear those challenges, they embrace them and meet them head on – that’s what we intend to do.”

It all kicks off at 6:30 GMT on ITV and BBC Radio 5 Live.

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