England have dropped Ellie Kildunne as the Red Roses aim to bounce back from their defeat by Canada that ended their 41-match unbeaten run.

Both sides meet on Friday in Ottawa, where full-back Kildunne has been relegated to the bench as part of a back-three shuffle.

Emma Sing, who has long been regarded as Kildunne’s understudy, has been handed a rare start in the 15 jersey after John Mitchell acknowledged the Red Roses’ poster girl was going through a “difficult” period.

Kildunne, who was the breakout star of England’s World Cup triumph last year, has struggled for consistency throughout the Red Roses’ WXV campaign.

Despite scoring a fine try against the Black Ferns at the Allianz Stadium last month, she has been routinely targeted by opposition teams and afforded little space.

During last week’s defeat by Canada – England’s first in almost four years – she was part of a back three that was stretched and hustled by an expansive, free-flowing Canadian attack which struck in the dying minutes to seal a 24-21 victory.

“It is undisputed that Ellie adds huge value, but she’s going through a difficult period at the moment and it’s important for us to help her through that,” said Mitchell.

“She wants to become consistent as well, and she’ll get back. It’s also important to create competition and to recognise that you have to become more consistent and reinforce the behaviours that we think are necessary to our game, and that goes for everyone.”

While Mitchell twice deployed Kildunne on the wing alongside Sing at full-back during this year’s Six Nations, he has resisted using that combination again, citing the need to plumb his side’s depth.

“We’ve got to maximise our depth and deal with the now,” said Mitchell. “I’ve got the future in mind. The fact is we’re after consistency and that’s the most important thing. We let ourselves down as a group when it really mattered as a lot of those things were in our control. That’s what we’re heavily focused on this week – what’s in our control.”

Sing has been a valuable attacking asset for Gloucester-Hartpury in recent years in the PWR and poses something of an unknown quality for a Canadian team that now has a good grasp of Kildunne’s game.

“Emma’s a very direct full-back who runs very square, whereas Ellie has the ability to beat you through her running game – she only needs half a metre,” said Mitchell. “They play quite differently, but Emma’s been sitting in the wings for this particular phase of our campaign, and she was intermittent through injury for a long period of time, and now she’s in a really good physical place. She’s worked really hard and it’s time to give her an opportunity.”

Elsewhere, Claudia Macdonald and Tatiana Heard have been dropped from the matchday squad altogether, with Mia Venner starting on the wing and Helena Rowland resuming a midfield partnership with captain Meg Jones. The only other change is in the forwards, with Sadia Kabeya selected at openside flanker.

England will be hoping to avoid back-to-back defeats for the first time in a decade on Friday in their third and final WXV clash with last year’s World Cup finalists, with Jones stressing the team must be better in its execution at a time when other nations are stepping up.

“We’ve also seen a huge step-up from the other nations in terms of how serious they’re taking it, with their fan base and their support that’s going behind them,” she said. “We love seeing the growth of the game just getting bigger and bigger.”