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England invited to Windsor Castle to celebrate Women's Rugby World Cup win
By Joe Harvey
Windsor Castle will welcome England’s Red Roses to Windsor Castle this week for a special reception hosted by the Princess of Wales.
Kate, who is the patron of the Rugby Football Union, will be joined by the Red Roses on Thursday to celebrate the team’s 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup success.
England players and team staff will receive a tour of the castle before taking a photo with the Women’s Rugby World Cup trophy.
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The princess was present in Brighton as England beat Australia 47-7 in the pool stages. During the match she was joined in the stands by Red Roses captain Zoe Stratford and 2014 Rugby World Cup winner Marlie Packer.
Kate then joined the squad at full time. England hooker Lark Atkin-Davies, in her tournament column, said: “Last week we had football royalty visit us when Chloe Kelly watched the Samoa game, but this week we had actual royalty come to watch.
“The Princess of Wales, who is also the Rugby Football Union’s patron, met the non-playing players at half-time, then watched the second half with Zoe Aldcroft and Marlie Packer, and visited the changing room after.
“I got to chat to her myself and we spoke a bit about the game itself, but she also mentioned she would love to bring her children to watch a game which would be really cool.
“As a team we have a song that we do after a game and she actually asked us to sing it for her. She was in amongst all of us while we were singing.
“The changing room was really lively because we wanted to bring plenty of energy and make sure we showed the Princess of Wales what the Red Roses are all about.”
In the New Year Honours list John Mitchell, Zoe Stratford (nee Aldcroft) and Marlie Packer were made OBEs. Ellie Kildunne, Sadia Kabeya and Megan Jones were made MBEs.
