The English Rugby Football Union (RFU), which has announced a profit of £18.4 million (€26.3 million) for the last financial year, has no immediate plans to reward the World Cup-winning players who have sparked an unprecedented boom in the game with a pay rise.

The players, who received up to £83,000 (€118,000) a man for lifting the William Webb Ellis trophy, are currently paid under an agreement with Premier Rugby Limited (PRL), signed in 2001.

Francis Baron, chief executive of the RFU, whose profit was up 21 per cent on the previous year with turnover increased 49 per cent from £59.1 million to £78.1 million, said any rise would be a matter for PRL, which is funded mainly by the RFU.

Any financial benefit for the players in the near future could come from a re-negotiation of the lucrative image rights, which Baron described as "outdated".

"I'm sure when the dust has settled a bit next year we will be having dialogue with the players on future arrangements," he said.

The profits have enabled the RFU to wipe out the last £19 million of debt for the development of Twickenham, which has just been given the go-ahead from Richmond Council for a new south stand which will increase capacity from 74,000 to 84,000.

There will certainly be no trouble filling it, as it was revealed that all tickets for England's celebration match against the New Zealand Barbarians on December 21st were snapped up within three hours of going on sale.

The RFU plan to keep the momentum going for a game which has seen 10,000 extra youngsters start playing since the beginning of the World Cup campaign.

Plans were unveiled to recruit more young players, more coaches, make the game appealing to everyone by promoting non-contact rugby and continue the World Cup mania by taking the Webb Ellis cup on a 30-stop, nationwide tour over the coming weeks.