What makes Zoe Aldcroft the world's best women's rugby player?

With seven minutes left in their last match before heading to New Zealand in search of World Cup glory, England led Wales 66-7. They were pounding at the line in an attempt to cap their 25th consecutive victory with an 11th try at Ashton Gate.

Alex Matthews, the dynamic back row, cut a short angle to take a pass from Claudia MacDonald in the shadow of the posts. Despite the lop-sided scoreline, Wales had been stubborn in patches. The visitors resisted, momentarily – until Zoe Aldcroft arrived in support.

Stooping just slightly, and latching onto Matthews, the exceptional lock drove her team-mate over the whitewash. England passed the 70-point mark, thanks to another understated contribution from the reigning world player of the year.

“Relentless” is a word synonymous with Aldcroft. That quality was encapsulated by her work for Matthews’s close-range finish, but it takes many forms.

“She’s relentless on and off the field,” says James Forrester, Aldcroft’s forwards coach at Gloucester-Hartpury for two years. “She’s so competitive and hates losing at anything.”

Rare are the players that ask for additional contact training. Aldcroft is a member of that club, and regularly told Forrester that “steel hardens steel”. Forrester also highlights Aldcroft’s creativity when it comes to devising line-outs. She and Abbie Ward represent a phenomenal blend of industry and technical nous in the Red Roses engine room.

“Pretty incredible,” is how Helena Rowland describes being in a team with Aldcroft. “You know what you’re going to get,” says the England centre. “She’s going to carry hard, tackle hard. She’s never going to stop.”

Statistics bear out that relentlessness. Over England’s record run of 25 wins, Aldcroft has accrued the most minutes on the pitch (1,449). The 25-year-old has made the most tackles (219), according to Opta, and taken the most line-outs (99). Ward is tied with her at the top of the line-out steals chart (14), while Aldcroft is third for carries (171) and attacking ruck arrivals (158).

In one Premier 15s match against Exeter Chiefs last season, she amassed 23 tackles and 33 running metres from 12 carries, complementing that with five line-out takes. She helped recycle the ball for Gloucester-Hartpury at 23 rucks.

But the real value of such contributions lies in the detail – the subtle, seemingly insignificant aspects, such as ball placement on the floor after a spearing run at the gain-line to ensure a quick ruck, or how she bounces up off the ground after a tackle to rejoin the defensive line.

“There have been defensive meetings where I’ve had to highlight that Zoe has rushed out of the system,” says Forrester. “She’ll reply: ‘I know what you are going to say. I just wanted to smash somebody.’

“It might be a bit of a lazy comparison but I was lucky enough to be in a number of squads with Martin Johnson. People always talk about Johnno’s leadership and forget what an unbelievable athlete he was. Zoe has that, and shares the same leadership style. She’s a tough northern girl but she has this aura around her.

“When she does speak, people shut up and listen and that’s really valuable. She’s not a fan of bulls--- and people talking too much. When she’s in a meeting or a training session, the standard just lifts. I don’t want to say other girls are scared of her… that’s maybe a little harsh!”

The last comment is made in jest. Forrester remembers the reaction to Aldcroft being presented with the World Rugby Player of the Year trophy last December. Maggie Alphonsi sprung the surprise during a Gloucester-Hartpury meeting. Genuine delight consumed the room.

“If she was a bit of a d---, half of the room might have sat on their hands,” Forrester says. “The girls were over the moon. She’s popular because she’s so down-to-earth.”

Another anecdote underlines Aldcroft’s hunger. Last season, Forrester and Sean Lynn took her off in the final quarter of a comfortable win against Sale in the Premier 15s.

“We thought we’d protect her because we’d be kicking ourselves if our star player got injured in the 75th minute of a game that was over,” Forrester says. “I didn’t think anything of it until I was going around congratulating the players afterwards. When I got to Zoe, she tore into me. She ripped into me and was really emotional. She gave me a bollocking, basically. I was totally taken aback and it made me realise what I was dealing with.

“Coming off in a game had probably never happened to her. Maybe I should have communicated it better to her… but she was raging. She’s definitely built differently.”

Perhaps the most pertinent example of Aldcroft’s influence, not to mention what the legacy of this Red Roses team could be, comes when Forrester reflects on what his two daughters see.

“My girls used to talk about Jonny May and Louis Rees-Zammit,” he says. “Now they’re talking about Zoe, going: ‘These girls are inspirational, they’re amazing athletes’. For me, that’s awesome.”