Princess of Wales enjoyed dressing-room sing-song with England players

The Princess of Wales mixed in with England’s dressing-room celebrations after their 47-7 win over Australia on Saturday.

Kate, patron of the Rugby Football Union, was a notable spectator at the Amex Stadium in Brighton to watch the Red Roses set up a quarter-final showdown with Scotland and equal their own world record of 30 consecutive Test victories.

Bristol’s Lark Atkin-Davies, who was brought off the bench in the second half, revealed in her weekly column on EnglandRugby.com that the princess was not merely there to make up the numbers.

“Last week we had football royalty visit us when (England’s) Chloe Kelly watched the Samoa game, but this week we had actual royalty come to watch,” Atkin-Davies revealed.

“The Princess of Wales, who is also the Rugby Football Union’s patron, met the non-playing players at half-time, then watched the second half with Zoe Aldcroft and Marlie Packer, and visited the changing room after.

“I’m not sure what they spoke about, but I’d love to find out! I wonder if they were giving her all the inside gossip from camp.

“I got to chat to her myself and we spoke a bit about the game itself, but she also mentioned she would love to bring her children to watch a game which would be really cool.

“As a team we have a song that we do after a game and she actually asked us to sing it for her. She was in amongst all of us while we were singing.

“The changing room was really lively because we wanted to bring plenty of energy and make sure we showed the Princess of Wales what the Red Roses are all about.”

England are building up to Sunday’s last-eight meeting with rivals Scotland in Bristol, where John Mitchell’s team will aim to stay on track to clinch home World Cup glory.