The Rugby Football Union wants fewer international fixtures scheduled after 2019 to help reduce the strain on the game’s leading players. England are about to host four consecutive matches at Twickenham but Ian Ritchie, the RFU’s chief executive, says he would back any proposal to cut the volume of Test rugby played worldwide.

England rugby squad’s workload puts welfare at risk, warns players’ union Read more

Ritchie warned of inevitable financial implications for the global game, however, if drastic changes are made to the fixture list. “I do accept that when we’re discussing the global season [any] agreement has to look at a reduction in the number of matches played,” he said. “We’ve got to do more than pay lip service to player welfare but you have to accept an economic hit somewhere along the line.

“The global-season issue is a perennial conflict between player welfare and economics. It’s all part of looking at how many games English players play and how many international games there are generally. We look at these things on a four-year cycle and my view is that [an agreement] has to address that. We do believe [a reduction] should happen.”

The RFU has confirmed there are no plans to stage England Tests in the north of England despite widespread support for the idea. Andy Cosslett, the RFU’s new chairman, comes from Manchester but says the funding for grassroots rugby generated by a sold‑out Twickenham outweighs the potential benefits of northern Tests. “It’s a big sum of money because there’s no stadium in the north of England with 82,000 seats and we would have to share the gate revenues,” he said. “It would have a pretty large financial impact and you would have to consider our 15,000 debenture holders as well.”

He also said there was no rush to reform the 60-strong RFU Council but the union is prepared to discuss possible changes to Championship promotion and relegation. “Our view is that conceptually promotion and relegation is a good idea as opposed to ring-fencing,” Ritchie said. “We were content to leave it as it is but if there’s an appetite for change, we’ll look at it. I’m quite open-minded to discuss it as long as Premiership Rugby and the Championship clubs think that’s a good thing to do.” A review of the Championship is being undertaken by the RFU’s professional rugby director, Nigel Melville, with the end-of-season play-offs under particular scrutiny.