'At tighthead, I'm nowhere near reaching my potential”

Maud Muir bounces into Pennyhill Park with a spring in her step and a trademark grin on her face. The rain is beating against the ornate windows of the Bagshot hotel that is the Red Roses' training home for the tournament, but it is a lighter training day – Muir’s session on the bike is done and thoughts now turn to the task ahead.

- HARRY LATHAM-COYLE

That task is a tussle with Wales in England’s opening home game of this year’s Women’s Six Nations. It is a rare chance for Muir to start. There have been times in her young England career where you would forgive Muir for cursing her luck, stuck as she has been behind the world’s premier prop in Sarah Bern. But with Bern on the sidelines recovering from knee surgery, the starting shirt is up for grabs – and Muir is ready to seize it.

“It is a big opportunity,” the Gloucester-Hartpury prop tells The Independent. “Out of my 25 caps, I’ve only started five times, so I’m excited to be given a shot starting. I have really enjoyed coming off the bench – and as a prop, you do get a decent amount of game time – but hopefully, I can cement my position starting at tighthead.

“I want to be one of the best tightheads in the world. I just want to be the best that I can be and I know that I am nowhere near reaching my potential.”

Muir burst on the scene as a teenager, catching the eye in a dynamic Wasps side and offering the same balletic, bruising blend as Bern. She was in the England reckoning quickly, making her debut in the autumn of 2021 against the world champion Black Ferns and not at all looking out of place. A prop polyglot also capable of covering hooker, a desire to get Muir on the field saw her deployed regularly on the loosehead, filling in wherever a spot opened up.