AS if your 50th cap for England was not enough of an achievement, a former Wilmslow High School sixth-form student is now preparing to represent her country in the world cup final.

Lichfield back-rower Harriet Millar-Mills, the Women’s Premiership Players' Player of the Year for the past two seasons, is set to line up with the Red Roses in Saturday's Women's Rugby World Cup Final against New Zealand at Ulster's Kingspan Stadium in Belfast, kick off 7.45pm (ITV, 7.15pm).

The 26-year-old teacher at Tudor Hall Boarding and Day School in Banbury came off the bench for her 50th appearance in the 20-3 semi-final victory over France, also in Belfast, on Tuesday.

Harriet Millar-Mills was also called on as a replacement in the two Pool B wins against USA and Italy at Billings Park UCD in Dublin, while she was among the try scorers at number six in the opening win against Spain.

She has been a regular for her country since 2011.

Her elder siblings Bridget and Elliot have also played rugby at international level, for Scotland and England Counties respectively, and a family training session is never far away.

Millar-Mills first tried the sport aged eight at Manchester Rugby Club after going to watch her brother train and play.

She joined in with the boys at the age of 12 before transferring to a girls' team in Chester “I was passing a ball with my dad watching my brother's team play rugby and their coach said ‘does she want to join in?’ so I thought why not,” recalls Millar-Mills.

As a sporty child who also enjoyed playing football, netball, hockey, rounders, athletics and tennis, she started to take rugby more seriously when selected to join the RFU’s national talent development group when she was 15.

She progressed through the under 18s and under 20s groups playing number eight and second row.

Her first England senior game came at the age of 20.

Stockport-born Millar-Mills, who was schooled at Bramhall High before attending Wilmslow Sixth Form College, went on to study sports technology at Loughborough University and trained as a maths teacher, all done while continuing to blossom on the rugby field.

International appearances have now been made against France, Scotland, Wales, Spain, Italy, France, New Zealand, Canada, USA and Argentina.

"To play for England it just means so much to everyone in your small circle with your friends and family as they see how much work you do behind the scenes to be the best you can be, so to show it on an international stage is the top place to show it," she said.

“It probably started out that I wanted to be better than my brother at rugby. You start on that and then you just want to be the best.”