Rob Andrew. Photo / Getty Images
The acting manager of England's national rugby team, Rob Andrew has confirmed that from next month players will be bound by a new code of conduct.
Strict new guidelines will come into force on July 1 when the players sign their new elite rugby contracts, The Times newspaper
reported.
Andrew, the Rugby Football Union's director of elite rugby, was in charge of the team's tour to New Zealand, during which players were reported to have taken local women to their Auckland hotel rooms for sex.
Measures to be considered by the new team manager, Martin Johnson, when he officially takes up his role next week may include a ban on girls in bedrooms and security guards on hotel floors to ensure a similar scandal does not happen again.
"We have a new contract with the players that comes into force on July 1", Andrew said.
The Independent newspaper reported that when Johnson unveils his first 32-man senior squad next week, he may name the four England players alleged to have been involved in the rape of a young woman in Auckland.
The woman, 18, is reported to have sought medical treatment after the incident and to have told police that she had been raped by two players, but she declined to make a formal complaint. Two other players are alleged to have watched.
"The image of red-rose rugby is in tatters," the newspaper said.
"The England management must now decide if the quartet can be subjected to an internal RFU inquiry of the sort Judge Jeff Blackett, the union's chief disciplinary officer, would naturally want to conduct while the police file is still open".
The Daily Mail, which reported the New Zealand trip as the "Tour of Shame", said revelations that replacement winger David Strettle was the England rugby player New Zealander Sophie Lewis slept with in Auckland's Hilton Hotel, cast new light on his purported lack of recovery from an injury.
Strettle was ruled out of the second rugby test against New Zealand on Saturday allegedly because he had nor recovered from a calf injury. This was after Ms Lewis sold her story to a British tabloid.
Will Carling, a former England captain, told The Times that the RFU needed to find a balance so players could still relax away from the game - but within sensible limits.
- NZPA
View photos: All Blacks v England, second test