England rugby stars will enjoy strong support at the Six Nations (Image: Instagram: mimifall / anniekknowles)
kick off their campaign today (Saturday) with a tasty match against Ireland. Subsequent clashes with France and Scotland are also poised to put ‘s players to the test later this month, before matches with Italy and Wales in March.
Many of the players involved will enjoy strong support not only from those cheering the nation on, but also from their wives and partners.
Here, Express Sport takes you through five of them including a celebrated artist, a singer and a YouTube vlogger…
Mimi Fall (Maro Itoje)
The pair are said to have met while modelling and they sealed their engagement on a romantic holiday to Ghana last year, which they both confirmed via .
Itoje’s England team-mate Marcus Smith was among those to offer his congratulations, commenting: “Congrats to you both !! X”.
Aside from being a model, Fall is reportedly an aspiring chef and a ”.
Maro Itoje is one of England’s most experienced players (Image: Getty)
Annie Knowles (Ben Curry)
Sale Sharks flanker Curry is in a relationship with London-based model and actor Annie Knowles, who boasts 143,000 followers on . Knowles also posts YouTube videos, with her ‘day in my life’ and ‘what I eat in a day’ posts attracting thousands of views.
Atdhetare Hoxha (George Ford)
Ford and Hoxha got hitched in 2022 after ‘a couple of years’ of dating. Hoxha arrived in the UK in 1999 as a Kosovan refugee, and has since worked her way up to become a successful restaurateur with an Italian eatery in Greater Manchester. Ford is one of Curry’s team-mates at Sale Sharks and is closing in on a century of games for England.
Michelle Daly (Elliot Daly)
Daly and his wife Michelle met as teenagers at the pricey Whitgift School for boys in Croydon, where he was a pupil and she was a sports events organiser. Michelle graduated from the London School of Photography and now runs her own studio called Michelle Sylvia Photography.
Beth Dolling (Marcus Smith)
Versatile England star Smith is with Beth Dolling, who is signed up to M Models Management and has appeared in modelling campaigns for the likes of Pretty Little Thing. Dolling also sings on , where she is followed by more than 50,000 people. She and Smith have been together for around five years.