England's Twickenham Stadium is being troubled by sewage smells ahead of next month's Rugby World Cup.

Twickenham residents fear the famous rugby ground will be "the laughing stock of the World Cup" as a sewage problem plagues the London suburb.

They've even taken to calling it "Stinkenham" or "Stinkers" as a $300 million upgrade of the nearby Mogden Sewage Treatment Works fails to clear the air.

The upgrades have included installing odour-reducing equipment and covers and refurbishing the odour control units at the sprawling plant that is designed to deal with 1600m litres of sewage a day, servicing 2.1 million people from a 30km radius.

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The problem hit the headlines again last weekend when Twickenham hosted England's warmup win over France.

The Telegraph newspaper reported that Campaigners at the Mogden Residents' Action Group (MRAG) said the smell at the weekend was "disgraceful".

A spokesman for the group told the paper: "If this is what we can expect throughout the summer and the World Cup it is disgraceful.

"Twickenham will be the laughing stock of the world due to Thames Water's failure to address the problems which have blighted the lives of local residents for decades but recently reached all time highs as far as odour trigger levels are concerned."

Rugby fans confirmed the issue to the Telegraph.

"On the way to the game against France I was aware of a pretty nasty niff filling the air," Robin Butler said.

"At first I just put it down to some local sewage works, but someone working at the ground said there had been a few issues with the Mogden plant.

"It wasn't pleasant at all, so let's hope the smell is wafted away in time for the start of the Rugby World Cup next month."

Resident Paul Oliver added: "People living around here who have to put up with the smell have been calling the ground Stinkers or Stinkenham for years.

"How the smell has not been dealt with by now is a mystery to everyone after all the work was done a couple of years ago - but the smell is still there and worse than ever."

The ground is set to host 10 matches during the tournament, including the opening fixture on September 18 between England and Fiji, two semifinals and the October 31 final.

A spokesman for Thames Water said they were working to fix the problem in time for the World Cup.