'I don't want to park the World Cup - it was incredible'

I was telling myself: ‘Don’t cry right now, Zoe. Do not cry right now? But I just knew that we'd done it.” Zoe Aldcroft is reflecting on the moment last month when she realised England had won the Women’s Rugby World Cup.

- Luke McLaughlin

There were 12 minutes to play at a sold-out, increasingly euphoric Twickenham, but the hosts had created a 20-point cushion against Canada thanks to Alex Matthews’s second try.

Aldcroft was correct: the game was settled at 33-13. A lifelong dream for her - and all the Red Roses - was about to become reality. “I ran back to the line and I was like: ‘Oh my God, we’ve done it’ [saw my family and they were like [she clenches both fists]: ‘Come on, come on!’ Another moment was when Ellie Kildunne put that spiral bomb up [before the final try]. I thought: ‘We’ve got this in the palm of our hands’ And the final whistle. We'll never forget that moment.”

Aldcroft describes the weeks since as a “whirlwind”. It’s back down to business now: the Premiership Women’s Rugby season begins next Friday and the flanker has returned to training this week with the champions, Gloucester-Hartpury. After arun of three consecutive titles, they will kick off against Saracens at Kingsholm on Sunday week.

Hopefully she had time for a holiday first? “I had a few days away with my husband, Luke, then to Ibiza with a few of the Red Roses,” Aldcroft says. “That was unbelievable, it was great.”