The inside story of how England won the Women’s Rugby World Cup

The scene was markedly different from November 13, 2022 at the Grand Millennium Auckland. The Red Roses, on a run of 30 wins, had lost the World Cup final at Eden Park and a group of broken players and coaches faced a long flight home in economy. On the morning of the 2025 final, on a run of 32 wins, Ellie Kildunne was told by her mother: “You don’t want to feel the way you felt in the last World Cup.”

After the familiarity of Simon Middleton came Mitchell, an unknown to the women’s game. Day zero of his tenure, before he officially took charge after the 2023 men’s World Cup, were summer camps in Chester. “We decided to refresh the environment or the culture and the way that we wanted to act,” Mitchell said. Far from being a tyrant, he let them set the culture and often speaks of “co-creating with the girls”.

The personnel has hardly changed in three years, and 17 players from the 2022 final were in the 2025 squad. Mitchell’s England expanded their game to become more of an all-court threat but retained the set-piece steel. In the wet conditions of “tournament football”, they were content to win by such means. Aesthetics did not trump glory.

A Mitchell keyword has been dealing with “unfairness”. In the 2022 final, these were manifold: England had no fully fit scrum halves and were without their starting full back; Aldcroft went off with a head injury; and Lydia Thompson’s red card left them with 14 women for more than an hour.

The 2025 version has not only worked to deal with unfairness, but also benefited from remarkable health. Aldcroft and Kildunne missed games through injury, but everyone was available for the final. The first-choice XV had been set in stone on August 9 when England beat France 40-6 in Mont-de-Marsan. Mitchell sought cohesion built on two years of trust, rather than the form-based whims of a week ago.

This meant that the nine NPRs (non-playing reserves) for the final were familiar with the role. They acted as the opposition in training, took part in community visits and smacked drums in the crowd. The fulfilment of NPRs — Jess Breach, for example, did not enjoy 2022 — is a big part of a squad’s culture, and these Red Roses wax lyrical about their closeness.

Patrick Marr, the leadership and culture coach, described them as a group that can go to war together and on holiday together. “There is just a connection and a bond within the team that I have not felt before,” Kildunne said.

Marlie Packer had some downgrade to NPR. It was only eight months ago that she lost the captaincy to Aldcroft; a demonstration that Mitchell was happy to change things to stay ahead of the opposition. While Packer led the second-choice side, Jones was a specialist vice-captain: she is regularly the talker in huddles, but Alex Matthews led the team against Australia when Aldcroft was absent.

World Cup preparation began in earnest on June 2. Having experienced campaigns that were long and stale, Mitchell wanted to avoid a “high-performance jail”, training the squad in Hazelwood, Teddington, Bagshot and Treviso in the first six weeks. The tournament proper began in Sunderland on August 22. Using the Red Roses’ imagery, this was the first base camp as they sought to climb Everest.

The schedule took the Red Roses around the country. It was only in Bristol, staying in the same hotel for the quarter and semi-finals, that the squad felt a sense of tedium. They entertained themselves with TikTok (relying on their own staff and players’ savvy, rather than a content creator from World Rugby like other nations), a visit from a drag queen, a quiz night and a movie night (Step Up). Muir was the spiritual leader of a scrapbooking group, using the front cover of The Times’s sport section to commemorate the opening night.

Every player also had a Jellycat — a soft toy — and faced a forfeit if, at the appointed inspection, it wasn’t on their person. In Durham, Kildunne was found out and had to straighten her distinctive curls, making her an hour late for broadcast interviews.

Front and centre of the hobbies was Abby Dow’s love of crochet, making mementos for opponents and referees. Supporters also bought into the Red Roses Yarn Art project, with organisations such as the Northamptonshire Women’s Institute decorating postboxes and railings. In a different field of design, Botterman and Jones had tattoos to reflect each venue: a cat for Sunderland, a shoe for Northampton, ice cream for Brighton.

There had been high-profile visits to the changing room, from the footballer Chloe Kelly at Franklin’s Gardens and the Princess of Wales in Brighton, but in the week of the final the squad saw a more familiar face: Gary Street, who is recovering from a stroke. Four members of the squad, and the defence coach Sarah Hunter, had been world champions in 2014 on his watch.

On the morning of the match that Mitchell had been hired to win, the head coach took to a cross trainer and read Ivan Cleary’s book about leading Penrith Panthers to four successive NRL titles in rugby league. “Be where your feet are” — living in the moment — was another Red Roses maxim but even Mitchell, who said he is more of a psychologist than a rugby coach these days, had to fight human nature. “I’ve tried to stay present but the past jumped into my head and the future jumped into my head as well and I gave myself a few uppercuts and tried to stay present,” he said on Thursday.

Seasoned observers said they couldn’t remember a Twickenham atmosphere quite like it. “It felt like a film,” Muir said. “I felt like a Borrower.” That reference was lost on Mitchell, but he caught the drift. “When we got off the bus, we were walking over to the entry and I had a quick glance at the South Stand and the place was just spinning with people,” he said. “I don’t think I have ever seen that before.”

Afterwards Aldcroft beamed like never before and finally used the Kodak disposable camera given to her by Kildunne at the start of the World Cup. She will need to develop those photographs to find out what happened before 6.30am.

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