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Maddie Feaunati, Liz Crake awarded full-time England contracts

LONDON, ENGLAND - APRIL 20: Maddie Feaunati of England celebrates as she scores her team's fourteenth try during the Guinness Women's Six Nations 2024 match between England and Ireland at Twickenham Stadium on April 20, 2024 in London, England. (Photo by Alex Davidson - RFU/The RFU Collection via Getty Images)

Exeter Chiefs flanker Maddie Feaunati and Trailfinders Women prop Liz Crake have both earned full-time England contracts for the 2024-25 season.

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On Monday, the Rugby Football Union (RFU) confirmed the 32 Red Roses who will be part of the contracted group next season.

Feaunati has made the cut having emerged as a key player for John Mitchell during England’s Grand Slam-winning Women’s Six Nations 2024 campaign.

The Chiefs forward, who also qualified for New Zealand before committing to the Red Roses, made her Test debut off the bench against Italy in March and was subsequently used as a replacement in each of England’s Championship matches.

Crake has so far won two caps for the Red Roses, both of which came as a replacement during the 2023 Six Nations.

Meanwhile, Lizzie Hanlon – who made her England debut against Ireland in April – Steph Else and the Red Roses’ youngest-ever Test player, Mia Venner have been added to the list of eight players on transition contracts.

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These contracts support aspiring Red Roses in their early professional journey, and safeguard some of their week for dedicated rugby development.

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Head of Women’s Performance, Charlie Hayter, said: “This Red Roses group is extremely competitive, and the standards continue to go from strength to strength, as evidenced in this year’s Six Nations.

“Everyone involved in the programme is dedicated and committed to the journey that lies ahead, and striving towards a common purpose of growing the game in this country and contest the right to be successful at next year’s home Rugby World Cup.

“Before then, the immediate focus is on best preparing ourselves for our September fixtures against world class opposition in France and New Zealand, before heading to WXV 1 in Canada.”

Red Roses head coach, John Mitchell, added: “We trust each other and our style of rugby, and have belief our game is working for us.

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“There is still a lot of room for growth in us and we have taken a lot of learning from our last Test match against France to move us forward.

“We are focused and determined to climb again and take our game to another level.”

England Women contracts: 
Holly Aitchison (Bristol Bears)
Zoe Aldcroft (Gloucester-Hartpury)
Lark Atkin-Davies (Bristol Bears)
Sarah Beckett (Gloucester-Hartpury)
Sarah Bern (Bristol Bears)
Hannah Botterman (Bristol Bears)
Jess Breach (Saracens)
Mackenzie Carson (Gloucester-Hartpury)
Kelsey Clifford (Saracens)
Amy Cokayne (Leicester Tigers)
Liz Crake (Trailfinders Women)
Abby Dow (Trailfinders Women)
Maddie Feaunati (Exeter Chiefs)
Rosie Galligan (Saracens)
Zoe Harrison (Saracens)
Tatyana Heard (Gloucester-Hartpury)
Natasha Hunt (Gloucester-Hartpury)
Megan Jones (Leicester Tigers)
Sadia Kabeya (Loughborough Lightning)
Ellie Kildunne (Harlequins)
Alex Matthews (Gloucester-Hartpury)
Claudia MacDonald (Exeter Chiefs)
Maud Muir (Gloucester-Hartpury)
Cath O’Donnell (Loughborough Lightning)
Lucy Packer (Harlequins)
Marlie Packer (Saracens)
Connie Powell (Harlequins)
Helena Rowland (Loughborough Lightning)
Emily Scarratt (Loughborough Lightning)
Morwenna Talling (Sale Sharks)
Abbie Ward (Bristol Bears)
Ella Wyrwas (Saracens)

Transition contracts:
Maisy Allen (Exeter Chiefs)
Katie Buchanan (Exeter Chiefs)
Grace Clifford (Loughborough Lightning)
Steph Else (Gloucester-Hartpury)
Lizzie Hanlon (Exeter Chiefs)
Lilli Ives Campion (Loughborough Lightning)
Nancy McGillivray (Exeter Chiefs)
Mia Venner (Gloucester-Hartpury)

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3 Comments
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Brian 172 days ago

Main surprise for me is Mia Venner, a pretty flakey winger, There must be 4 or 5 better wingers than her including Sing, nominally a fullback, who gets no contract.

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Hellhound 21 minutes ago
France put World Cup pain behind them with unbeaten run in November

France is starting to look like they are finally over their WC headache, although they were lucky that NZ had a very bad game. The Argies as usual is one game good, the next bad. If they can sort that out and be more consistent, they could become contenders for the WC.


NZ, Argentina (if they are more consistent), and now the Wallabies too is in an upward curve (can they be consistent?), as well as Fiji(as inconsistent as Argentina) looks like possible contenders. The Boks will be as usual a huge threat to defend their title. Things are looking up for the South, so the North should rightfully beware of the Southern Hemisphere threat.


With the French looking dangerous, the English with their close runs (mostly a mindset problem) and the Scottish seems to be the NH main contenders. The Irish is good, but not excellent anymore. They are more overbearing and with their glory days mostly gone with old players hanging on by a thread, by 2027 if they don't start adding in the younger players, they won't make it past yet another WC Quarter final. The problem is that their youngsters, while good is nothing special.


That is just 8 teams without the Irish that can become real WC contenders. Lots of hickups to be sorted still for these teams, excluding the Boks to become a threat. Make no mistake, the top Tier is much closer than people realise and the 2027 WC will be a really great WC, possibly the best contended WC ever.

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