While Stuart Lancaster and Chris Robshaw are trying to put the England team back on an even keel on the pitch in the RBS 6 Nations, as CEO of England Rugby World Cup 2015, Vaughan’s work over the next three years will have an even greater bearing on the future of the world game.

Vaughan is charged with paying the IRB £80m just through ticket sales in 2015, and when that is added to sponsorship, television and merchandising income, the Rugby World Cup represents 95 per cent of the IRB’s budget.

As a result, Lancaster’s task in hand appears small-fry, but with almost three million seats to sell for the 2015 World Cup, Vaughan is confident he will not only manage that but also succeed in turning a profit.

“Effectively the Rugby World Cup represents 95 per cent of the IRB’s four-year cycle, so it’s pretty important for the world game,” said Vaughan, who will be speaking on what it takes to host major tournaments the Global Sports Forum Barcelona in March.

“We have to pay the IRB a guarantee of £80m and the only revenue stream I get is through ticketing.

“Sponsorship, television and merchandising all goes to the IRB. So I have to pay all the costs, and have to pay my £80m but I still think we will make a small profit. I’ve got to keep my costs down of course.

“We learnt a lot from what happened in New Zealand and will take a lot from what they have done but we can’t implement everything and will do it in our own way.

“They engaged the population with the concept of a ‘stadium of four million’ but one of the differences we have got is a population of 60m with nine million who follow the game in some way or another.

“We’ve got to find a way of engaging with our nine million core audience but also to expand out to what I would describe as the big event population, those people who will want to be involved in a big event whatever it is.”

A successful England side would inevitably make Vaughan’s life a lot easier, however he insists that he will still be able to meet his targets even if the Red Rose is struggling.

The Rugby World Cup will also mark a return to rugby in the north of England, with Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool all set to host games as Vaughan takes matches to football stadia whereas the 1991 World Cup used exclusively rugby venues.

And he admits that it was the opportunity to take the game to as many people as possible which was the rationale behind this decision.

He added: “We are planning to take it all around the country, we will be using a lot of football grounds so there will be games at St James’ Park, Old Trafford, Anfield and Elland Road.

“The North East and North West are hotbeds of rugby, perhaps not in terms of player numbers but huge numbers of England players have come out of the north both east and west.

“We are hoping the step between what you would normally pay and a World Cup ticket would not be as big a gap [as in New Zealand] and we still hope for instance to get a ticket below ten pounds in some of the pool games particularly.

“We want to make it accessible because we want to see full stadia.

“The interest in the game inevitably is driven by a successful national side and if England do well in the next three-year build-up that will suit us incredibly well. It will also suit us if Wales do well, Ireland do well and Scotland do well.

“However on the evidence that Twickenham still sells out for a home international match no matter how badly we are doing, we will probably be ok.”

The GSFB is focused on “Sport, What’s Next?” which aims to tackle many of the key and most topical issues in sport such as the prominence of match fixing and bridging the gap between sport and entertainment