And the 38-year-old soon-to-be head coach has praised the work of English academies for creating a platform for an exciting future of English international rugby.

He said: “We're already had a very exciting season so far. It's been a real whirlwind with the Six Nations flashing by and now we've kicked off the Junior World Championship.

“It's been a privilege to work with the best young players in the country and the quality of the players and the staff is fantastic.

“I've thoroughly enjoyed working with Mark Mapletoft. Mark has been very happy to share his experience and I would like to wish him every success in his new role. But before that we have a Junior World Championship to contest.

“The England under-20 programme has strong foundations and builds on the excellent work done by academy managers in the clubs and everyone involved in the player development process.

“It's now a matter of building on that so that the programme continues to go from strength to strength.”

Hunter represented the Army, London Scottish and Northampton Saints as a player and was the academy manager at Northampton before joining the RFU as a National Academy Coach in November last year.

He will be assisted by new National Academy coach Diccon Edwards, who is joining the Rugby Football Union from Leeds Carnegie.

England finished second - on points difference - in this year's Under 20 RBS 6 Nations and are second seeds at this month's Junior World Championship having reached the last two global finals. They opened the tournament with a 48-22 win over hosts Argentina on Saturday.