{"id":325624,"date":"2025-12-20T00:53:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T00:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/325624\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T00:53:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T00:53:14","slug":"meet-the-next-kildunne-looking-to-make-a-name-for-themselves-in-sevens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/325624\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the next Kildunne looking to make a name for themselves in sevens"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

2025 has been the year of Ellie Kildunne<\/a>. The 26-year-old England<\/a> international powered the Red Roses to Women\u2019s Rugby World Cup<\/a> glory and was this year\u2019s BBC Sports Personality of the Year runner-up.<\/p>\n

With a star power that has now extended beyond the confines of the rugby sphere, what the full-back could achieve in 2026 is limitless. But she is not the only Kildunne hoping to hit new highs in the next calendar year.<\/p>\n

Sam Kildunne is four years his sister\u2019s junior and plays for Ampthill in Champ Rugby.<\/p>\n

Already the 22-year-old is an England<\/a> Sevens international, having made his debut in Rugby Europe competition and followed in the footsteps of his sister in 2022, and harbours ambitions of representing Great Britain Sevens in HSBC SVNS<\/a> competitions.<\/p>\n

Upon her brother\u2019s maiden England Sevens call-up Ellie posted on X: \u201cProud big sister moment\u2026 \u201cCan\u2019t wait to see my not so little brother in an England shirt this weekend- always known you\u2019d shine, it\u2019s now your time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The duo clearly have a close bond. Over the years the pair have regularly stood on the sidelines to watch one another play and attended the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards in Salford together.<\/p>\n

On the field there are plenty of similarities. The duo\u2019s hitch-kicks when played side by side are almost identical, as is the way they look for space<\/p>\n

In an interview with The Telegraph, Sam even spoke about how he trained with his sister during the Covid lockdowns and stood in as arch-rivals as a form of solo-training motivation.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver Covid, when Ellie was first in the England set-up, she had to be back at home and training on her own,\u201d Kildunne told The Telegraph<\/a>. \u201cI remember training with her and it came to fitness at the end, which can be hard to motivate yourself for when you\u2019re on your own, so I\u2019d join her. I\u2019d pretend to be Portia Woodman-Wickliffe<\/a> and say I\u2019d just intercepted the ball in the World Cup final and she had to catch me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pair even trained alongside one another in 2024 ahead of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. On Ellie\u2019s podcast, Rugby Rodeo<\/a>, the pair described that experience as \u201cweird\u201d as they house-shared while in camp.<\/p>\n

While at Loughborough University, Sam was a mainstay of his team\u2019s National 2 side and contributed to their BUCS Super Rugby success in 2024. He earned his Ampthill contract after he impressed the club\u2019s Director of Rugby, Dave Ward<\/a>, at London Floodlit 7s.<\/p>\n

On his debut for the Bedfordshire club he scored a try in the club\u2019s 45-24 win over Cambridge.<\/p>\n

He doubled down on that bright start to the season at Safari Sevens in Kenya, where he starred for Team UK and finished the competition as top try scorer with nine efforts.<\/p>\n

In his appearance on Rugby Rodeo, Sam explained how the opportunity to represent Great Britain in Dubai and Cape Town \u201cdidn\u2019t work out\u201d but how the \u201cdream\u201d to play HSBC SVNS is more alive than ever.<\/p>\n

Having grown up watching the exploits of his sister across the globe and represent her country at the Olympic Games, the same year she became the 2024 World Rugby Women\u2019s 15s Player of the Year, it is not hard to see why Sam wants a shot at the world stage. And he has all the talent to do just that.<\/p>\n

So keep an eye out for a familiar, yet still new, name on a Great Britain team sheet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2025 has been the year of Ellie Kildunne. The 26-year-old England international powered the Red Roses to Women\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325625,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-325624","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}