Thousands of sports fans have signed a petition asking ITV to stop playing Paloma Faith's Rugby World Cup song.

The 34-year-old singer's cover of World in Union has been criticised online, with people branding it "excruciating".

Jonathan Wilson, 24, from Worcester, started the petition a week ago on campaign website Change.org. Since then it has amassed nearly seven thousand signatures.

The IT worker told the Press Association: "The petition isn't taking issue with Paloma herself - in fact, I'd never even heard any of her music before last week.

"I don't like her rendition of World in Union, but she's interpreted the song in her own unique way and sung it in her style, and it would be wrong of her to have approached it in a different way.

"What we're petitioning against is ITV's decision to use the song in their coverage, and the regularity with which it is forced upon our gentle ears."

He said he would present ITV with the petition if it reached 10,000 signatures, adding that the TV channel was yet to contact him.

The singer and soon-to-be judge on The Voice told the BBC she was quite pleased with the song, and suggested that the track being played a lot might have been responsible for some fans' irritation.

On a Facebook group set up to provide updates about the petition, one user wrote: "I quite like Paloma Faith but her rendition of this song is excruciating and is not made any better by blasting out one line of the song at every commercial break."

Another added: "Thank you so much for starting this petition, her snippets are so offensive and painful. I normally like Paloma Faith as well but it's awful."

A spokesman for ITV told the BBC: "We are happy with Paloma's rendition."