ENGLAND’s World Cup winning rugby captain is to be honoured by her former university.

Katy Mclean MBE is to be awarded an Honorary Fellowship of Sunderland University in a ceremony next week, in recognition of her services to rugby and women’s sport.

The 29-year-old fly-half, who plays her club rugby for Darlington Mowden Sharks, was captain of the England team which won the World Cup in Canada last year.

Born in South Shields, she graduated from Sunderland University in 2007 with a BSc in Sports Studies and went on to win 78 caps for her country.

She said: “Rugby was a massive family passion, and winning the World Cup was something that I dreamt about when I was little.

“To captain England to a World Cup, to finally achieve that last year was very special. That was easily my proudest moment, we worked so hard for it and so many things had happened, it was a massive relief if anything but also I felt very proud of everything we had achieved as a team as well”.

The former teacher added: “It’s a massive honour for me to receive this award from the University of Sunderland.

“I had a brilliant time at Sunderland, I made a completely new set of friends and the support from the University academically was really helpful”.

Also honoured at the ceremony at the Stadium of Light on Thursday will be fellow Sunderland graduate Jonathon Riall, Team GB’s head coach for the Paratriathlon team, and Professor Peter Fidler CBE, Vice-Chancellor of Sunderland from 1999.