ZOE ALDCROFT and Tatyana Heard have been named in England’s 23-player squad for the World Cup final against New Zealand.

Former Malton and Norton junior Aldcroft, who was named the Mastercard player of the match in England’s semi-final against Canada, maintains her place in the team.

Alongside her will be the Ryedale-raised Heard who will be looking to finish a memorable tournament in a similarly strong vein of form.

England will take on the current World Cup holders on Saturday (6.30am UK time) at Eden Park.

New Zealand have won the prestigious competition a record five times and will be looking to further their impressive tally in front of a home crowd.

England have reached the final after a stellar run in the World Cup. They finished atop Group ‘C’ with 14 points after beating Fiji 84-19, France 13-7 and South Africa 75-0.

The Red Roses advanced to the quarter-finals, where they took on Australia who they beat 41-5.

In the semi-finals, England faced a tough opponent in Canada, but successfully emerged victorious from the closely-fought match, winning 26-19.

“I could not be any prouder of the squad, how we have conducted ourselves and how we have performed,” enthused England head coach Simon Middleton.

“We set ourselves an objective to leave this country a better squad than when we arrived and regardless of what happens on Saturday we will do that.”

England squad: Kildunne, Thompson, Scarratt, Aitchison, Dow, Harrison, Infante, Cornorough, Cokayne, Bern, Aldcroft, Ward, Matthews, Packer, Hunter (C), Davies, Muir, Brown, O’Donnell, Cleall, Kabeya, MacDonald, Heard