Sarah Hunter wants England to build on the Lionesses’ Euro 2022 success

Sarah Hunter believes that England’s World Cup rugby campaign is perfectly timed to try and “carry on momentum” generated by the Lionesses’ stunning Euro 2022 success.

The baton for British women’s sport will soon be passed to England captain Hunter and company as the Red Roses target a World Cup triumph in New Zealand.

Currently ranked the number one team in the women’s game – and by a distance – they have also won the last four Six Nations titles and crushed perceived main World Cup rivals New Zealand 43-12 and 56-15 on successive weekends last autumn.

Hunter, who starred when England won the World Cup in Paris eight years ago, knows there will be considerable expectation and pressure.

But she says the squad has been left “buzzing” by England’s 2-1 victory over Germany at Wembley, which gave the Lionesses a first major trophy and the first for a senior England football side since the 1966 World Cup.

“As a female sports player, it has been absolutely incredible to see how the nation has got behind them,” Hunter told the PA news agency.

“You expect it with the England men’s football team, but for everyone to be talking about it, for it to be all over television, the papers, social media, it just feels like a real turning point, not just for football, but women’s sport as a whole.

“I am inspired by what they have done. They have gone all the way to win a European Championship on home soil, which is unbelievable and fantastic to see.

“I watched the final on television, and when the cameras were panning around the stadium you saw so many young girls and you thought this is what they now expect and they can grow up and say ‘I want to be Leah Williamson, I want to be Chloe Kelly’.

“My nine-year-old niece was there – her first