The English rugby crisis deepened on Thursday night when it was alleged that the Rugby Football Union tried to make three England players pay around £14,000 in hush money to a New Zealand chambermaid during the World Cup.

In the latest leaks published by the Times it is claimed that James Haskell, Chris Ashton and Dylan Hartley were asked by the RFU to pay Annabel Newton NZ$30,000 as compensation for alleged verbal sexual harassment.

One of the players said: "Two days before the Scotland game, WC [whose full name is not given] says you've got 24 hours to decide whether to settle with the girl for NZ$30,000 or not. Paying the money seemed to be the advice. Another option wasn't really given.

"We refused to pay because we hadn't done what she claimed we had done. So we went to find our own lawyers in NZ because we felt the RFU QC was interested in defending the RFU's reputation rather than ours."

Newton's story was then published in a newspaper. Hartley was exonerated by the RFU, which warned Haskell and Ashton over their conduct and gave them suspended fines but found the chambermaid's "allegations of very serious wrongdoing" were "entirely false".