Fran Williams is living the best of both worlds.

The England captain spends the majority of her year soaking up the rays and honing her craft in Perth, Australia as part of West Coast Fever, before jetting half way back across the world to represent her home country during the international break.

It is the life of a professional netball player, and one that 27-year-old loves.

Having spent the last two years flipping between the two sides of the world to soar for both club and country, Williams believes that the dual-nature of her career has been the key to her consistent success.

"I have loved my time out in Australia, I feel like I have learnt so much about the environment they have out there in terms of the professionalisation of the league and that full-time training piece," she said.

"I have been challenged to up my game and it has also given me the opportunity to go up against some of the best players in the world week in and week out.

"In terms of putting myself in a good place to improve in my career at this stage, I definitely feel like it's had that impact.

"I've missed home comforts for sure but it is always a big privilege to be welcomed back into the England camp. 

"I am always comfortable with the girls here straight away, and having those connections that I have built over years and years.

"At the moment I feel like I am getting the best of both worlds."

Williams was the youngest member of an experienced England squad that won bronze at the Vitality Netball World Cup in Liverpool in 2019, with just three caps to her name at the start of the tournament.

Since then she has risen to become one of the most consistent players on court, with 2023 a stellar year that included a Netball Super League triumph with Loughborough Lightning, a Netball World Cup silver medal, and her first Super Netball contract.

Williams first captained England in that monster 2023 season and admitted that the role now feels as natural as ever after returning to the UK for the recent international series against New Zealand and Jamaica.

"Captaincy doesn’t come without it's challenges but I think it came naturally," she said. "I am constantly questioning whether I am doing the right things by the players.

"I want everyone to be enjoying themselves, feeling confident and having such belief in this environment and I feel responsible for creating that."

The Vitality Roses take on the Sunshine Girls on 13 and 14 December at London's Copper Box Arena, with ambitions to flip the narrative after their narrow series defeat to New Zealand in November.

For Williams, it provides the opportunity to prepare for the upcoming Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games and with such a new and fresh squad hoping to take to the court next summer for Team England, Williams is already noting her team's biggest strengths.

"We want to get the exposure now, so that when we come up against these people during the Commonwealth Games then we know what to expect," she said.

"It feels like a bit of a new group and definitely less experience but it's building and developing new collections.

"It's really exciting because we have so much diversity in the combinations we can play and so much positional coverage in how we are using the depth of our squad.

"I think that is going to be a real weapon for the Roses, particularly in tournament netball."

Despite winning her first World Cup medal in 2019, Williams missed out on inclusion in the netball team for the 2022 Commonwealth Games and is yet to make her multi-sport Games debut.

With memories of Team England's golden moment from Gold Coast 2018 and now captaining a team with three of the players who were in that very squad, it has meant that Williams is more determined than ever to reach the upcoming Games in Scotland.

"It's a huge motivation for me, the fact that I was not there in 2022 and I'm yet to experience being part of Team England," she said.

"Speaking to girls on the team who have been a part of it, they have such good memories.

"That is what unites our whole team, it is what everyone wants, that gold medal.

"We are eyeing up the 2027 World Cup in Sydney after that as well. We want to win that gold medal in 2027 and part of that comes down to winning gold at Glasgow to put ourselves in that position."