England’s Ellie Kildunne has been named as the Player of the Tournament for the 2024 Women’s Six Nations.
After a shortlist of the competition’s standout players was put out for fans’ consideration, Kildunne claimed 38% of the record-breaking 32,240 votes which was more than twice the number of people who had their say compared to last year.
The 24-year-old topped this year’s Championship statistics in five categories, breaking four records in the process as the Red Rose finished top try scorer with ten, recorded the highest meters carried (869.3), highest meters gained (677.5) and most line breaks (13).
During England’s Grand Slam winning campaign, Kildunne also won three Player of the Match awards against Italy, Scotland, and the penultimate game at Twickenham against Ireland, where she scored a hat-trick.
Commenting on receiving the award, Kildunne said: “I am honoured to be named Player of the Championship, but the credit needs to be shared with my teammates. The award is particularly special given it has been decided by the fans. There is a genuine sense that the sky is the limit for the growth of women’s rugby.”
“We are chasing down a sold-out Twickenham for a women’s game. Attendances and viewers are up, and the buzz around the sport is only getting louder. As players, we feed off this and want to put on a show for fans. It just goes to show that the teams and players competing across the Championship are helping to put women’s rugby on more people’s radar.”
The superstar fullback had fierce competition for this year’s award in the form of Italy’s electric winger Alyssa D’Incà, France powerhouse back rower Romane Menager and Ireland breakthrough back rower Aoife Wafer.
The award caps off an unforgettable season for Kildunne, who also announced this month that she was joining Great Britain 7s in the hope of fulfilling her dream of competing at the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
Alongside the award, Kildunne was named in this year’s Guinness Women’s Six Nations Team of the Championship with eight of her England teammates, the most of any nation.
2024 Guinness Women’s Team of the Championship
1. Hannah Botterman (England)
2. Neve Jones (Ireland)
3. Maud Muir (England)
4. Manaé Feleu (France)
5. Zoe Aldcroft (England)
6. Aoife Wafer (Ireland)
7. Sadia Kabeya (England)
8. Romane Menager (France)
9. Natasha Hunt (England)
10. Holly Aitchison (England)
11. Abby Dow (England)
12. Beatrice Rigoni (Italy)
13. Megan Jones (England)
14. Alyssa D’Incà (Italy)
15. Ellie Kildunne (England)
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