Millie David was almost speechless when the England head coach, John Mitchell, called to say she would start for the Red Roses against Wales. All the wing could get out was \u201cthank you so much\u201d over and over, despite having more she wanted to say. On Saturday, the 20-year-old will realise her England dream at a sold-out Ashton Gate, the home ground of her club, Bristol Bears.<\/p>\n
The first thing David did after ending the call was jump in her car to tell her No 1 fan, her dad. \u201cBless him he started crying straight away,\u201d she says. \u201cWe are quite an awkward family so for him to do that in a public place as well just showed how much it meant to him.\u201d<\/p>\n
David\u2019s selection in a white jersey has felt inevitable given her quick rise in the English Premiership. She made her PWR debut in the 2023-24 season and was the joint top try-scorer the following campaign. She was named breakthrough player of the season and earned the nickname Millie Whizz when friends joked she saw herself as Jason Robinson, the World Cup-winning England wing known as Billy Whizz.<\/p>\n
David, who is in the third year of a maths degree and had to ask for a dissertation deadline extension because of a clash with her first cap, added she had put pressure on herself to be named in the 2026 Six Nations squad.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople don\u2019t put that much pressure on me because they know how much pressure I put on myself,\u201d David says. \u201cMy parents didn\u2019t put me under any pressure at school because if I did one thing wrong I would be in tears.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am definitely a determined person, a hard worker. Sometimes people need to tell me to chill out a little bit. I just want to be the best at everything, I want to win at everything. I do put a lot of pressure on myself and I think I could be a lot nicer to myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018England v Wales is historic. They have developed a lot \u2026 You can\u2019t underestimate anyone.\u2019 Photograph: Karl Bridgeman\/RFU\/The RFU Collection\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
David has played for England\u2019s youth teams and has experienced several Red Roses camps but still separates herself from England, referring to Mitchell\u2019s side as \u201cthey\u201d and \u201cthis team\u201d. She says she will only feel comfortable using \u201cwe\u201d once she has donned the red rose on the pitch, and her inclusion is one of seven changes by Mitchell for his starting XV to play Wales. She will be joined in the back three by Claudia Moloney-MacDonald and Ellie Kildunne, a player she has long looked up to.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a bit weird,\u201d David adds. \u201cYou put players you watch on TV on a pedestal. You think of them as not real people but they are just people. Ellie is so nice. The first time I ever met her I cried because I was so anxious about it, whereas now I speak to her all the time, I am going to be playing with her. It was scary at first but you do get used to it. We have been training together for four weeks now. It has been cool to develop relationships with players I have looked up to for so long.\u201d<\/p>\n
David, Kildunne and the rest of the England squad will aim to reach 36 wins in a row against Wales after demolishing Scotland last Saturday. The Red Roses will be favourites. Wales\u2019s last win against England was in 2015 while Sean Lynn\u2019s side have lost captain Kate Williams due to a calf strain.<\/p>\n
Ellie Kildunne runs clear before scoring England\u2019s third try against Scotland. Photograph: Russell Cheyne\/Reuters<\/p>\n
Bethan Lewis will skipper in her stead and has said Wales have \u201cabsolutely nothing to lose\u201d in the encounter. There is certainly no pressure on Welsh shoulders to win, but David said England are not underestimating their opposition.<\/p>\n
\u201cEngland v Wales is a historic thing,\u201d she said. \u201cThey have developed a lot under Lynn, they have been performing really well. You can\u2019t underestimate anyone in this competition.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before the action begins David will experience the anthem for the first time at senior level. Usually, players scan the crowd for loved ones, but she may avoid her dad\u2019s gaze.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I do [spot him] I will be bawling my eyes out,\u201d she said. \u201cI know for a fact that he will be. We don\u2019t show that much emotion but we both know we have a lot of it. He has been there with me through a lot and I have grown quite a lot as a person in the last few years. I am very grateful for what he has done for me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Millie David was almost speechless when the England head coach, John Mitchell, called to say she would start…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":627627,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-627626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/627627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}