Former Bath, England and Ireland coach Brian Ashton will be at the helm of the junior and the new intermediate national academy whose players will feed into England head coach Sir Clive Woodward's senior squad.

Ashton will hatch his plan at the University of Bath, now the official home of both academies, with the help of seven full-time coaching staff including World Cup winner Dorian West and a team of physios and medics.

Ashton is confident he will supply Woodward with tomorrow's future world champions.

"The national academies are vital in developing future England internationals and we are already seeing the benefits with so many young players coming to the forefront of the game,'' said academy manager Ashton.

"Winning the World Cup was a fantastic achievement but we need to build for the future and the national academies are an integral part of the development plan.

"The new intermediate academy will help bolster this aim further. The object of the intermediate academy is to keep developing players who may be too old to compete in the under-19 and under-21 side but have not yet made it into the England senior squad.''

Ashton added: "These players are outstanding in their age group and that is why we are eager they do not get lost. The emphasis here is on quality not quantity. World-class players are very thin on the ground.

"The academies are about individual attention in areas such as game understanding, physical conditioning, mental skills, nutrition and lifestyle. We are unashamedly working in an elite environment.''

The academy set-up will also act as a way of researching innovative ideas both physically and mentally which could be vital if England are to be crowned world champions again.

Ashton continued: "We want to create future excellence and this can only be achieved by experimenting with new ideas here with the boys. Because we are not a team and we do not have the pressures of time we can try out new physical or mental exercises which may not only help us but Clive Woodward's squad as well.

"To keep being the best in the world we have to project into the future and identify areas of the game where we would take it forward before anyone else.''