KEIGHLEY'S Ellie Kildunne has been named on the replacements bench for England Women as they open their three-test series against Canada tomorrow.

The former Woodhouse Grove pupil, who came through the ranks at Rose Cottage as a junior, is one of several players set to earn new caps at Allianz Park.

The 18-year-old back, who now plays with Gloucester-Hartpury, is joined by fellow new faces Caity Mattinson, Zoe Harrison, Abigail Dow and Jessica Breach.

Middleton has full confidence his new players can make the step up having impressed in the new Tyrrells Premier 15s competition.

"They have got great skillsets, they're really accomplished players," he said.

"If you look across them they can all catch, pass, understand good running lines, they can kick the ball really well and that is unbelievably rare for a group of young players coming into a set-up at this stage in their career. It gives them a great platform.

"Our priority is to win the series and keep our winning momentum going from last season."

Earlier this year England missed out on World Cup success after losing to New Zealand in the final in Belfast.

Middleton said: "One of the things we picked up from the World Cup is we're an extremely good team, we have got lots of structure and lots of processes.

"But you always find out in your darkest moments and your biggest losses where those bits are that you haven't got.

"That's where we've gone and there are one or two things that we're doing to help to bring that to the side and it's also become a little bit of our selection criteria when we pick players."

The game kicks off at 7.30pm with a live stream taking place on Englandrugby.com.