England will play a World Cup warm-up game against Italy in Newcastle next summer, The Times can reveal. It will be the first time that the RFU has decided to take a home game away from Twickenham since they played World Cup qualifiers against Italy and the Netherlands in Huddersfield in 1998.

The RFU had been exploring options in Manchester — the Etihad Stadium and Old Trafford are bigger than St James’ Park, which has a capacity of 52,405 — but Newcastle is building its reputation as a rugby city. The ground hosted its first rugby internationals during the 2015 World Cup, and 2019 promises to be a blockbuster year for the city, with Newcastle to host the 2019 Heineken Champions Cup final in May