While the Rugby Football Union is expecting a crowd of over 50,000 at St James’ Park in Newcastle on Friday for England’s World Cup send-off match against Italy, insiders have warned there appears to be little hope of another match being staged outside of Twickenham “any time soon” because of the governing body’s financial constraints.

Tonight’s game is the first time outside of a World Cup that England have played a home Test away from Twickenham since Sir Clive Woodward’s side faced New Zealand at Old Trafford in 1997. England did play Argentina at Manchester United’s ground in 2009 but that was it was technically a ‘home game’ for Los Pumas, who forwent home advantage for financial reasons.

The decision to stage the game in the north east was taken under previous chief executive Steve Brown, who had been a strong advocate of taking matches around the country to build on the momentum generated by the RFU hosting the 2015 in England.

England played Uruguay in Manchester in their final pool match in the 2015 World Cup (when they were already out of the tournament) while there were also two sell-out matches not involving England each at St James’ Park, Elland Road and the King Power stadium.