'What more would you want?': why Emma Sing should start for England

Everybody’s attention was entirely focused on one person as Gloucester Hartpury continued their faultless start to the 2025/26 Premiership Women’s Rugby season.

In the Round 9 clash Emma Sing picked up her fourth Player of the Match award of the campaign in her team’s 45-26 win over Loughborough Lightning. She also added 10 more points for her tally for the season and ignited a debate about whether the 24-year-old should be England‘s starting full-back in the 2026 Guinness Women’s Six Nations.

Since she made her try-scoring Test debut in 2022 against Italy, Sing has won 13 caps for the Red Roses and has been permanently stuck behind Ellie Kildunne in the pecking order. Even if her domestic record as PWR’s top points scorer for consecutive seasons has been backed up by oodles more glossy stats.

At the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup, Sing was on the pitch for 104 minutes and scored one conversion against the USA Women’s Eagles at the tournament opener in Sunderland.

A quick look over the stats so far this season tell the tale of Sing’s supremacy. Nine rounds into the new domestic season she tops the league for points scored with 92 – 33 more than her closest rival, Zoe Harrison.

She has also made the most metres in the league with 810. Kildunne sits third in those rankings with 531.

“It’s interesting because they’re so different,” Katy Daley-McLean said on TNT Sports after Sing had turned the ball over on her own line to prevent Bo Westcombe Evans scoring. “Emma Sing is more of your traditional full-back. She kicks well. She defends well.

“Ellie, yes, has so much X-Factor, but I think Emma Sing has seen an opportunity here and she’s after Ellie’s shirt. It’s good because there’s no pressure on her. You can go and thrive.

“Gloucester are going well. If I was Ellie Kildunne, I would be having a little look at the moment.”

Competition for places is no bad thing. But with there being core differences in how Sing and Kildunne play the game – the former being more of a game manager and the latter a game-changer – it does not have to be a case of one or the other.

The firepower that BBC Sports Personality of the Year runner-up Kildunne possesses is undeniable and to omit her from proceedings, at this moment in time, is unimaginable.

But with the retirement of Abby Dow, there is an opportunity to shake things up in the back three.

Shifting Kildunne to the right wing to allow Sing the no.15 jersey and keeping Jess Breach on the left wing is a distinct possibility, especially while the development of others (Millie David, Reneeqa Bonner, Mia Venner and Bo Westcombe Evans) continues.

With the arrival of Emily Scarratt as Red Roses backs and attack coach it is feasible that there could be a change in approach. A change in approach that allows Sing into the side.

In any case Sing’s head coach, Dan Murphy, hardly flinched when asked if Sing should start for England this spring.

 

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“Yeah,” he beamed. “She can catch the ball on the full every time, she counter-attack, she’s so strong and she kicks goals from five metres off the edge of the field. What more would you want?”

John Mitchell was in attendance at Kingsholm on Sunday. It is a place the 61-year-old New Zealander has gotten to know well in recent months after he spent November with Gloucester Rugby helping develop the Gallagher PREM outfit’s defence.

In total there were six of his Women’s Rugby World Cup winning squad on display, including his captain, Zoe Stratford. That is before you mention the England hopefuls.

Emily Scarratt was there in her capacity as Loughborough’s backs coach, while England forwards coach Sarah Hunter was a pundit for TNT Sports.

In her Player of the Match interview with TNT’s Claire Thomas, Sing revealed that Mitchell has told her what she needed to do in order to warrant more time on the pitch.

“It’s more of the same,” Sing said. “I think everyone’s always going to keep improving. The standard of rugby is just getting better and better in England. Just anything to try and improve them small bits to try and put my name forward.”

More of the same from Sing is a heart stopping prospect for whatever team she opposes. In Round 10 that team is Sale Sharks, who are smarting from a 30-29 loss to Bristol Bears as Keira Bevan’s stoppage time penalty broke North West hearts.

It is also a chance for Gloucester Hartpury to keep their lead at the top of the table as Saracens return to action against Leicester Tigers on Sunday afternoon at Mattioli Woods Welford Road.

But, whichever way you look at it, Sing will want to make the most of playing rugby again. Itching to get back out on the field again after the winter break, in which time she went back home to Devon, the only thing on the 24-year-old’s mind is getting better. Plus, not being on the pitch is not her idea of a good time.

“Hell, really,” she said of the time off. “I’ve been a bit bored, nothing really to do. It is nice to get back out with the girls. I think we’re just trying to make each other better on the pitch.”