An ‘exciting summer’ of women’s sport lies ahead

Sitting together, laughing and chatting, at The Oval cricket ground in south London, Ellie Kildunne, Niamh Charles and Sarah Glenn could pass for any other 25-year-olds.

However, they are professional sportswomen who wear an England shirt all summer long.

Before Kildunne aims to win the Women’s Rugby World Cup in England in September, and Glenn aims to win the Cricket World Cup in India in the same month, footballer Charles hopes to assist the Lionesses in defending their Women’s Euros title in Switzerland in July.

The women’s game is growing so much. The other teams as a whole have all improved significantly. Who participates in the tournament is the issue.

We’re lucky we’ve had lots of good games before to prepare so I think we’re not looking to peak right now, but when it comes to the Euros we’re going to hopefully have used all those games to be in the best position from that first game and see what happens.

Cricketer Sarah Glenn: [We had a really tough winter] [We lost to Australia in the Women’s Ashes] 16-0. This summer’s India series will be playing at home, and those games can occasionally be quite chaotic.

We’re good rivals, we get good crowds in and obviously there will be that pressure there.

But for us, it’s just a great way to demonstrate how strong we are and how to win victories, and it will be like a breath of fresh air for the group with Lottie [head coach Charlotte Edwards] joining and Nat Sciver-Brunt as the new captain as well.

Summer is a really exciting one. I trust in the process and let the outcome take care of itself.

Ellie Kildunne, a rugby union player, says that being a successful team is what people want.

However, the last World Cup was supposed to be won by us, but we didn’t, making it a very difficult tournament.

Everyone shows up for major tournaments so it doesn’t matter what the world’s saying about how well they expect us to do, we know there’s a lot of work to be done.

We are extremely cool and special, but we are aware that there is still work to be done.

I sneaked home on the weekends and played football when I was playing rugby for Gloucester.

Then I got asked to play rugby for England and was given a contract. When I realized that it could be a career and that I could work as an athlete full-time.

We’re actually entering a phase where the game is definitely expanding. There’s more investment going into it and you can see that professionalism, and how that can really accelerate the growth of the sport.

I also played hockey and cricket, Glenn. I did some thinking about which path I wanted to take while balancing those two, which was quite difficult.

I played in the Kia Super League in 2017 and it was my first professional tournament. Because there were young children watching us, and we could chat with them afterwards, it was really inspiring.

Even though it was incredible when I signed for England, the domestic game didn’t have much structure. There was a huge amount of pressure on that England contract because otherwise I’d have to pick up a job alongside that.

Lucy Bronze discusses working two jobs and doing a lot of different things to advance professionally right away when we speak.

I see her in meetings, advocating for how much the women’s game is growing. She’s really at the forefront of that because she has to fight, and the investments have increased.

I don’t think 20-year-old Lucy would believe what the women’s game is now because it has grown.

She’s been massive in forcing the women’s game to keep up with how it’s growing, she’s pushing it, but also advocating for what we deserve and making sure that we’re growing and it’s sustainable.

Kildunne: As a team, there isn’t really a retirement age. Girls who have experienced two World Cups are known to have their first World Cup coming up, according to me. So we do a lot of collaboration of what to expect.

We make a lot of connections to the origins of women’s rugby in the classic Red Roses. Do it for the girls is one of our goals, and we are proud of our heritage.

It’s for the younger generation, the girls in our team and the girls that came before us. And I believe that gives our work a little more power.

You still have the inner drive to go above and beyond. The game is not just winning, it’s much bigger than that.

To inspire the next generation and take it to a place it has never been before while doing it for the girls who came before.

Glenn: When England women won the 2017 World Cup, I literally went in the crowd to cheer the girls on.

I thought it was amazing and I had a moment where I thought ‘ I really want to be a part of this ‘ – because at that point I was training hard, but I didn’t know if I could quite make it.

I was a part of the England junior academy, and I then began training with Heather [Knight] and Katherine [Sciver-Brunt], both of whom were involved in that World Cup.

They have seen how much the game has evolved and where it is now.

I feel like I’m constantly learning new games to improve and improve. You can always get better. I don’t believe I’ll ever reach my peak. Because I believe you can always improve, I’d like to never be at the top of my game.

Charles: The last day before I retire, I should hopefully be at my best. I would have been around the block, and I believe I’m learning new things about myself each day, such as how to improve my little skills.

So I keep telling myself that I’m only hoping to get better and better as I age. The best is yet to come, hopefully.