Dahl, Torres and 'Keighley Queens' - the making of Kildunne

The pivotal team in Ellie Kildunne's journey doesn't exist.

Even the star herself can't quite remember what they were called. Or more accurately, what she called them.

"Keighley Queens" is her best guess.

Kildunne had turned up at a trial for Yorkshire's under-15s side. She hadn't been invited, but her mother spotted the date and took her along.

Asked which team she played for, a club-less Kildunne had to improvise. The Keighley Queens, or something similar, were born.

Kildunne had previously had two clubs.

Having tagged along with her neighbours' two boys at the age of six, she would cross town and codes to play both league for Keighley Albion and union for Keighley on weekends.

The only girl on the pitch, she would scorch past once-scornful boys.

"I just loved the pressure of proving myself," she remembers.

"I wanted to make a statement. 'You are looking over your shoulder and laughing, but just wait...'"

She had overturned similar preconceptions at secondary school. Arriving as an 11-year-old, she told the PE staff she would be playing rugby, not netball.

She was shoved out on the wing for the B team. By the end of the season, she was named back of the year.

But her progress hit a familiar roadblock. Puberty hit, genders split, teams expanded to 15 players and rugby options for young women grew sparse.

"I didn't know that women's rugby was a big thing at that point," says Kildunne.

"Instead I wanted to be the next Steven Gerrard."

By the time Kildunne arrived at that Yorkshire trial, she had moved on to football.

A childhood Liverpool fan, she used to run around the house in a replica shirt, her curly hair slicked back to resemble Spanish striker Fernando Torres.

It provided the team environment she relished.

She was part of a Farsley Celtic team who travelled to Manchester City's Etihad training campus and beat the Premier League giant's academy side 7-1.

But Kildunne still hungered for rugby.

"When you've got that feeling inside you that you're meant to do something special, you have to have that dedication and drive to overcome barriers," she said.

"There's always another route. If it's not A, B or C, it's probably X, Y, Z."

For Kildunne, it was Yorkshire. Having been accepted to represent her county, she thought she had better find a real club to replace 'Keighley Queens'.

She joined West Park Leeds. Soon after she played Castleford. On the opposite team was Carla Middleton, the daughter of future Red Roses coach Simon Middleton.

"I'd never seen anything like it," said Middleton Sr.

"Her team went 30 points down and she kept them in it, almost on her own, running in tries and kicking goals from the touchline. You don't see that from many 15-year-olds."

Three years later, Middleton gave a raft of youngsters their England debuts in a match against Canada in Barnet.

Hannah Botterman, Zoe Harrison, Abby Dow and Jess Breach all won their first caps, along with an 18-year-old Kildunne who scored a try during her 27-minute cameo in a 79-5 win.

"This route has tolls, includes a car transporter train, crosses through France and ends in a different time zone."

Plot a road trip from London to Monaco, and the online journey planner spits out plenty of warnings. Chief among them is the estimate that it will involve more than 15 hours at the wheel.

In November last year, though, it was a drive Kildunne was contemplating.

Her scheduled flight to World Rugby's annual awards ceremony in Monaco, where she was on the shortlist for world player of the year, had been cancelled.

Instead of sharing the snacks and satnav duties, though, she and her partner ended up hitching a lift on a private charter flight laid on for southern hemisphere players involved in the autumn internationals.

"It was honestly the most wild thing ever," she said. "I took loads of videos to show Mum and Dad.

"[South Africa wing] Cheslin Kolbe was a couple of seats behind me.

"Alun Wyn Jones looked like a big man in a very, very small plane.

"And then when I got to the awards there were so many people I wanted to speak to, I was fangirling massively."

Kildunne, who scored 14 tries in nine Tests for the Red Roses in 2024, walked away with the award that night.

And now, she is the focus of the fandom.

At every England match at this Women's Rugby World Cup, her name has been cheered loudest when the teams are announced.

When the match begins and she gets her hands on the ball, a bubbling mix of anticipation and excitement fills the stands.

There are more signs, T-shirts and general love for her than anyone else.

Her talent is exceptional, but also obvious.

While the finer points of Botterman's breakdown work or Meg Jones' defence are harder to appreciate, Kildunne's ability with ball in hand needs no context or explanation.

She is a supremely balanced runner with a galloping stride, a silken swerve and the daring to put them to use on the biggest stage.

Twice in the semi-final win, she sliced France clean open for outstanding individual scores.

But there is more to her popularity than that.

She has struck a chord off the pitch.

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Kildunne has a motto. She has it in frames on her walls and on the lock screen on her phone.

She alluded to it in a social media post , externalcelebrating her world player of the year award win, finishing her message with "lukewarm is no good".

They are words written by author Roald Dahl and the full quote runs: "If you are interested in something, no matter what it is, go at it at full speed ahead. Embrace it with both arms, hug it, love it and above all become passionate about it. Lukewarm is no good."

Kildunne has stuck close to that advice.

She is passionate about her past.

"I'm a very proud Yorkshire woman," she said on the eve of the tournament.

"It's important to be strong to your values and to remember who you are and where you've come from because that's the person that's got you here.

"It's not all the showbiz and the lights and the cameras, it's that young girl that picked up a rugby ball."

She is passionate about her present.

"I just love what I do and the people that I'm around on my team. I'm grateful to be part of it," she says.

But she is also unapologetically ambitious about what's next.

Her side projects include photography (she has been pitchside taking shots at England men's internationals, external), fashion (she designed a campaigning clothing collection, external) and podcasting (she and Breach launched Rugby Rodeo 12 months ago).

She packed deliberately lightly for the tournament so she could piece together vintage outfits from local second-hand shops as the team moved around England. She brought a second-hand keyboard into the pre-tournament training camp in the hope of learning piano.

She also has a string of commercial deals, appearing in bespoke cheetah print boots in the semi-final win over France and big-screen adverts for the tournament's official beer.

It is an enthusiasm and energy that is difficult to resist.

Since the start of this year, the source of some of it has become clear.

Kildunne was diagnosed with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) - a neurodevelopmental condition that can lead to hyperactivity and impulsiveness.

"I was struggling to sleep at times," she told GQ., external

"My brain was working really fast or I wasn't quite able to verbalise something that I'd seen on the pitch, so I was frustrated with myself.

"I had a conversation with Mum and Dad about my diagnosis. They said 'it's you, you're creative, you go from one thing to another and that's what's made you'.

"I definitely think it's a superpower - I've got the ability to focus on many things at once, but also hyper focus on the things that matter. And that's definitely what has made me the player and person I am."

And on Saturday, she may become a world champion, healing the pain of defeat in the 2022 final which she described as "my first real rugby heartbreak".

Inevitably though, she also has other goals.

"The biggest thing for me is staying tight with the girls," she said more than a month ago, as the tournament stretched out before her.

"These will be the things that we talk about in years to come when we are old ladies sat around a pool somewhere sunny together. Those are the moments we will reflect on."

From the Keighley Queens to queens of the world?

Whatever destination this tournament arrives at for Kildunne and England, she is determined to have enjoyed the ride.