Maud Muir can become England's most destructive front-row operator

In the glorious moments after England's second sensational victory over New Zealand a fortnight ago, head coach Simon Middleton was asked if he already knew his squad for next year’s World Cup. In his response, he singled out one player to reinforce how he wasn’t “a million miles away” from deciding on his final selection.

“Look at Maud Muir and what she’s capable of doing. She’s put herself right in the frame for getting on the plane to New Zealand, from pretty much nowhere,” summarised Middleton, referencing England’s up-and-coming prop who has burst onto the scene this autumn as the side look to stretch their unbeaten run to 18 consecutive wins against USA on Sunday.

At 20, Muir was one of the youngest to be selected for England’s 40-player October training squad, although her World Cup potential was spotted long before that. In a testimony to Middleton’s meticulous approach to soften the jump from club to Test rugby for youngsters, Wasps’ Muir was first called up to England’s squad eight months ago for the Six Nations, having proved her worth in the Premier 15s.

A powerful scrummager armed with an almighty fend - not to mention her unusually raw speed for a forward - Muir is the epitome of the modern, dynamic front-rower in the women’s game. She first turned heads two seasons ago, when her destructive ball carrying complemented the free-flowing game shaped by Covid law variations brought into the women’s top flight.

LJ Lewis, Wasps forwards’ coach who has even worked with Maud on her perfecting her hooker’s throw, puts it best when she concedes “you always remember Maud” - and not strictly because of her beaming smile.

“She’ll carry 20m or get through a huge work rate in a game - from 12 carries and 10 tackles - that’s massive for a front row player to do,” reports Lewis. “Every time she has a touch of the ball or impact in a collision, it’s always meaningful.”

Yet Maud’s sporting career could have easily panned out differently. A promising junior cricketer, she only decided to concentrate on rugby towards her late teens - on the simple basis that matches were too time-consuming. “I’d kind of fallen out of love with it for a few years and was doing it because my mum is a big cricket fan and doesn’t like the aggression in rugby,” Muir tells Telegraph Sport. “I wasn’t terribly good at it.”

That is a rather modest assessment. Local cricket reports from her days playing for Charlbury Cricket Club in Oxfordshire - with whom she toured Sri Lanka with in 2016 - describe Muir as the team’s “star” batter.

For Vicky Strode, who was Charlbury’s captain when it counted a teenage Muir among its ranks, she looked every inch the rugby player on the cricket pitch. “She was a force of nature in the way she played,” recalls Strode. “She would throw herself about and was never scared of getting hurt - it was almost like she’d dive if she didn’t need to sometimes. It kind of makes sense with rugby.”

England’s women’s team is not lacking in players who are talent transfers from other sports - a reality reinforced last week by when former gymnast Heather Cowell twice crossed the whitewash on her debut against Canada. While she does not fit the typical profile of a rugby convert, Muir’s exposure to another sport outside of rugby appears to have broadened her level-headedness.

“A lot of the youngsters I’ve worked with would be really affected if something went wrong on the pitch - cricket is a game where you could be out on the first ball,” adds Strode, “But Maud would always just bounce back.”

Perhaps it is why she was hardly fazed by making her England debut against world champions New Zealand at Sandy Park earlier this month, the position she has honed since breaking through to Wasps’ senior team.

When she graduated from the club’s centre of excellence as a 17 year-old, age-grade restrictions meant she could not play across the front three, so she slotted into the back row. Although she is yet to nail down a long-term position, it is her versatility that could prove key in her possible World Cup selection and longevity as an England player.

“I personally think right now, you don’t need to put her in a box, it doesn’t help the athlete,” says Lewis.  If she’s honing her skill at tighthead with England at this moment in time, she also gets to figure out what she doesn’t like from a loosehead. So if she becomes a loosehead, wow - she’ll have all that experience.

“For scrummaging, it doesn’t matter how much muscle mass you have, or how strong and powerful you are, it’s time in that position which determines how successful you’re going to be.”

Lewis points to England’s Sarah Bern as a textbook example of a player who has excelled at tighthead ever since switching from the back row four years ago. It is no coincidence that Muir has picked the Bristol player’s front-row brains over the past month.

“Berner’s amazing,” says Muir. “She wants me to ask questions and is always trying to help me. Do you know about personality traits? Everyone has a different one. In England, there are apparently a lot of ‘red’ personalities in the team and I need to show more ‘red’. It’s not anger - but about trying to stand out a bit more.”

The colour is also linked to passion, desire and positive energy. Muir, who has the potential to be England’s most destructive front-row operator, has all three qualities in abundance.