Caitlyn 'The Kid' and former Red Rose aim to undo England

Women's Rugby World Cup Pool A: England v Australia

Venue: Brighton and Hove Albion Stadium Date: Saturday, 6 September Kick-off: 17:00 BST

Coverage: Live on BBC Two, BBC Radio Sports Extra, BBC iPlayer and BBC Sport website and app

There is a lot to like about Caitlyn Halse.

The youngest Australian to appear at a Women's Rugby World Cup, the 18-year-old knows her history as well as she makes it.

When the full-back was asked about childhood rugby heroes this week, she picked a player who retired a year after she was born.

"Christian Cullen," Halse said, referencing the quicksilver All Black full-back who scored 46 tries in 58 Tests for New Zealand.

"I loved watching him play. He was more of a winger/full-back, but the way he manipulated the line and his speed..."

Halse would have more archive footage to gorge on, but for John Mitchell.

Now the England coach, one of Mitchell's first acts during his early-2000s stint in charge of the All Blacks was to drop a 25-year-old Cullen.

It was a decision so controversial that Mitchell's own son Daryl didn't speak to him for a week., external

Cullen and Mitchell's relationship never recovered and Cullen played only a handful more Tests before a move to Munster and injury took him out of international reckoning.

Halse will hope to haunt Mitchell with Cullen-like ghosting pace and lines from deep on Saturday when Australia take on England.

Nicknamed 'The Kid' by her team-mates, she has been directly involved in more tries than any other player at the World Cup so far, scoring four tries and assisting another three.

The Wallaroos need more.

England have won all seven of the teams' previous meetings, with little chance of that trend changing. Halse's side are 80-1 outsiders for the match.

The Wallaroos' place in the knockout stages will instead depend on them either claiming a four-try bonus point, or maintaining their 135 points-difference advantage over a United States side who take on minnows Samoa earlier on Saturday.

However, Halse knows most of the traffic will be coming her way.

"England's back three are definitely very quick," she said.

"Our defence is pretty good and I'll have my wings chasing back and helping out, but when they break the line it's fight or flight."

Full-back Ellie Kildunne and wings Abby Dow and Jess Breach are indeed a blurringly fast combination - between them they have scored 143 tries in 158 Tests.

After recovering from a serious hip injury, Breach has rediscovered her pinball zing.

In front of a crowd of more than 30,000 and close to where she grew up, she will want to mark her 50th cap by adding to her five tries so far in the tournament.

Apart from the absence of injured captain Zoe Aldcroft, who hopes to return for the knockout stages, England are near full strength.

Morwenna Talling, more usually a second row, will attempt to stake her claim to a back-row spot after being handed the six shirt. Number eight Alex Matthews admitted she was taken aback to be handed the captaincy.

Holly Aitchison, a playmaking fly-half, will get the chance to pull strings for the first time in the tournament after recovering from an ankle injury to take her place on the bench.

Otherwise, England will be tuning up and locking down selections.

With the safety net of a quarter-final place already assured, they will road-test against, on world ranking at least, their strongest opponents so far.

"It's a great opportunity to build on what we've already established," said Mitchell.

"We're looking for a strong performance. Australia have definitely improved since we last played them [a 42-7 victory in October 2023], and it will be interesting to see whether they kick or run.

"Either way, they have to play, which is a great opportunity for us."

Jo Yapp, who captained England to the World Cup final in 2006, is looking at the contest from the opposite perspective.

She will be staying in England at the end of the tournament, bringing an end to a near two-year spell in charge of Australia.

Yapp doesn't want to distracted by her former team, but she won't want defeat by England to be her sign-off either.

"Like we have said all week, in every Test we have played the focus is always on us and on us as a team being better," Yapp said.

"We had a lot of things we got right last weekend [in the 31-31 draw with the United States] but we also had a few things we were a bit disappointed with, so there has been a real focus on that this week and what we can bring and be better at."

If Yapp is soon to represent Australia's past, she will leave young talent like Halse as a legacy for their future.

England, too, will be looking to the future.

Victory in Brighton will make it 30 wins on the spin. They had amassed the same number heading into the last Rugby World Cup final. And lost.

After Saturday, they head into the knockout stages, primed to get it right this time.