England's £120 million RWC war chest

The RFU is stopping at nothing to ensure that England comes home with the Rugby World Cup in 2019 - telling coach Eddie Jones it will spend whatever it takes to bring home the William Webb Ellis trophy.

Steve Brown, the RFU chief executive, said: "Eddie already has quite detailed and comprehensive plans in place to build up to 2019 and we already know what the costs of those things are and have already factored them into our financial plans.

"We are already preparing for it. Our ambition is the same as Eddie's. We want to win this [the World Cup in Japan] and we will do what we need to do to win it.

"The key to that is really comprehensive planning two years out, as we are now, and making sure we fund all the things that need to be funded that are going to make it happen. It is a significant number but it is complicated. There is a taste of it in the professional game figure [£63.7 million] that is in the [annual] report."

A record total of £120 million is to be spent over the next two years in the professional game, compared to the £44.3 million that was invested going into the last World Cup campaign.

England has found success under Eddie Jones since the last World Cup, climbing to number two in World Rugby's rankings, however,  they have not had the chance to play the world's number one side - the All Blacks.