The Rugby Football Union’s rugby department, which includes development officers and grass-roots coaching staff, is to lose the greatest number of jobs in the organisation’s multi-million pound cost-cutting exercise, Telegraph Sport can reveal.

It is understood that 40 jobs out of a total of 75 across the organisation will be lost in the rugby department, almost a fifth of the department's current 250-strong workforce.

The governing body has just completed the first phase of the consultation process and has identified that at least 72 jobs will go at the end of the month, but that figure is expected to rise to 75 when the second and third meetings are held in the next two weeks.

There had been fears from within the governing body that the total figure could have risen to 100, but the reduction from the current total workforce of 570 will still had a major impact on the organisation.

The rugby department will be the hardest hit because it proportionately has the highest number of employees and will undoubtedly have a detrimental effect on the community game in particular.