Ellie Kildunne on her Harlequins exit and Bristol move

Ellie Kildunne says she has "had to look in the mirror quite a lot and stick to my values" since a summer that ended with her leaving Harlequins for Bristol.

The Red Roses now begin six WXV Global Series matches, starting against Australia's Wallaroos on Saturday in Salford.

Her standing is clear in the stands. On a windy but sunny day in Teddington, she is stopped every few steps for pictures, and a young boy comes over to ask for a selfie with the full-back.

"I think the hair is a bit of a give away," she says with a grin.

"I'm not saying with young girls it is a given [to be asked for a selfie] but you think that is going to happen," Kildunne says. "These young boys look up to Jonny Wilkinson. For them to come and ask me for a picture shows how rugby is changing for women. It's crazy."

Her exit from Harlequins this summer caught fans and the player herself off guard. Kildunne says the decision came after the Women's Six Nations, when she sat down with coaches and they "came to the conclusion" she would no longer play at the club. She describes it as a "shock", adding that Quins "didn't have the best season" and she "wasn't prepared to leave when we're down, but things happen for a reason and maybe this is the challenge that I needed".

Harlequins, founded in 1866 and based at the 14,800-capacity Twickenham Stoop, sit ninth in the Premiership Rugby table with 30 points from 18 matches this season.

If the move to Bristol works as she describes, it may give Kildunne a fresh setting to carry the form that has made her the face of the Red Roses into the WXV series and beyond.