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Top 5 players of 2025: England's Red Roses
By Joe Harvey
The list of achievements this calendar year from England’s Red Roses are limitless.
Because, on top of winning the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup in their own backyard, the side won their seventh Guinness Women’s Six Nations title in a row, won their 33rd game in a row and were shortlisted for BBC Sports Personality Team of the Year.
Becoming world champions for the third time in the Red Roses’ history steals the headlines. With good reason. The culmination of unparalleled dominance from the side as they have claimed every title on offer to them, apart from one until this September; the Women’s Rugby World Cup.
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Led by John Mitchell, who claimed World Rugby’s Coach of the Year gong, the side were untouchable for swathes of the tournament.
From Sunderland, where they swatted off the USA Eagles in style, all the way to Allianz Stadium and a world record crowd in Twickenham, it was fairytale stuff. It was also the occasion for England’s biggest stars to step up. And step up they did.
All the below names bar one made RugbyPass’ Top 50 Women’s Players list, published before the World Cup. But if published again now, the final name will have forced her way in.
It is an unenviable task to have to pick only five of the team’s best players from such an outstanding year. But here we go…
As we approach the end of 2025, here are England’s top 5 players of the year:
Meg Jones (centre)
Any year that ends with a World Rugby Women’s 15s Player of the Year nomination can be classed as a good one. Chuck in a Women’s Rugby World Cup trophy and it is possibly hard to top.
In 2025 Meg Jones had a Midas touch. Even as her former club finished second-bottom in the Premiership Women’s Rugby table she was named the competition’s top player.
That form was carried through the Guinness Women’s Six Nations and the Rugby World Cup. To sum things up succinctly, Jones was the player England looked to when they needed a get out of jail free card.
Her ability to see a gap, beat defenders, make line breaks and put her teammates into space was priceless. Jones was one of the few Red Roses to take part in every game of the Women’s Rugby World Cup, and all with a huge smile on her face.
Undroppable. Unflappable. Unbelievable.
When looking for a player to name the Red Roses’ player of the year, you hardly have to skip a beat to know it is Meg Jones.
Zoe Stratford, née Aldcroft (loose forward)
When Zoe Stratford was named England captain at the start of this year it was to lead with her “world-class actions”. Looking at the 29-year-old’s body of work since then, she has done just that.
Stratford’s leadership is what sets her apart from anyone else. The lock forward and back-row has been the heartbeat of the Red Roses for some time and racked up consistent performances with every outing.
On her way to lifting the Women’s Rugby World Cup trophy at Allianz Stadium she made 68 tackles, took 15 lineouts and made 25 carries for 52 hard-earned metres.
Even when she missed two group stage games of the tournament with a knee injury sustained against the USA, Stratford was close by motivating her teammates, whilst rubbing shoulders with Catherine, Princess of Wales, and the Lionesses’ Chloe Kelly.
It is hard to imagine the Red Roses without the leadership and the performances of Stratford.
Alex Matthews (number eight)
It is hard to fathom that Alex Matthews’ England career is 14 years old already. Now 32 the back-row forward may have completed her finest year in a Red Roses jersey yet.
The reason for which is simple; her level of consistency is remarkable.
During the Rugby World Cup campaign, the number eight not only got to captain her country for the first time or became a world champion for a second time, but she also carried the ball on 49 occasions and completed 81 tackles.
Such well-rounded performances and self-assured skill set meant that the Gloucester Hartpury forward finished each of the five games that she started. Remarkable.
Ellie Kildunne (full back)
If there was ever a player made for the biggest of occasions it is Ellie Kildunne.
This year the full-back did not have everything her own way. A hamstring injury in the Guinness Women’s Six Nations left her sweating on Women’s Rugby World Cup fitness, but when the first whistle blew everyone got to see why the 26-year-old was the reigning World Rugby Women’s 15s Player of the Year.
Against the USA Eagles in Sunderland, Kildunne raced across the whitewash twice, her two tries against France helped her team into the final and her game changing score against Canada set the tone for a successful day at Allianz Stadium and to be crowned a world champion.
The sight of Kildunne’s tightly coiled barnet haring toward the try line to roaring crowds will live long in the memory.
By the Women’s Rugby World Cup’s end England’s full-back had beaten 27 defenders and carried the ball for 523 metres from 47 carries. Horrifying stuff.
Much like Jones, Kildunne was looked to when England needed a spark. She provided that in spades.
Sadia Kabeya (back row)
It felt like 2025 was the first time in a while that we got to see Sadia Kabeya get a full run without injury.
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The Loughborough Lightning back-row took part in three matches on the Red Roses’ way to another Guinness Women’s Six Nations title. But it was her faultless and energetic displays at the Women’s Rugby World Cup that put her in a different class.
Every game that Kabeya started at the tournament she finished. She also made more tackles than any other player (112) and 22 more than her closest rival, Morwenna Talling (90).
That ability to keep in the contest and her defensive constancy was dazzling at times.
Kabeya even made 33 carries across her five performances and scored three tries at the World Cup, which ended with a Player of the Match award at Allianz Stadium after a victorious final.
At only 23, and keeping long-serving England stalwart Marlie Packer on the bench throughout the World Cup knock-out stages, it is frightening to think how high Kabeya’s ceiling is. A year to remember.
Rugby’s best of the best, ranked by experts. Check out our list of the Top 100 Men's Rugby Players 2025 and let us know what you think!
