The Rugby Football Union unveiled a £78m scheme that they hope will make England world champions by 2007.

The scheme, funded jointly by the Rugby Football Union and Sport England, involves the creation of a World Class Performance Plan and was launched at Twickenham with RFU performance director Chris Spice among those outlining how they plan to make England world leaders.

The big-money venture - £8million of which is invested by Sport England and the remainder financed by the RFU and the clubs - will not be spent on the top end of the game, but will be used to create a series of regional academies working in conjunction with the Premiership clubs across the country as well as a national academy.

The aim of the RFU is to identify the most talented young English-qualified rugby players around from the age of 14 and nurture them through this structure into the rugby stars of tomorrow.

The RFU will especially focus on areas that have lacked rugby talent such as the south east, the far south west and Cumbria. They also plan to draft in the best coaches around and provide some of the best sporting facilities in the country.

"We want to win the World Cup in 2007 and this plan is going to give us a structure to do that with a production line of players who will guarantee us a high quality future," said academy director David Shaw, who along with his partners have invested four years into developing this plan.

"This scheme is about finding the best English players to get to the top. The whole feature is now remarkably exciting."

The RFU also did not rule out the possibility of working alongside rugby league in the future, adding that they would like to develop rugby players who can play both codes. They are also in discussions with rugby league bosses about developing a centre of excellence in Manchester.

RFU performance director Spice added: "We have never had a structure like this before.

"In the past we have lost up and coming talent because of this but hopefully with this scheme we are confident that will not happen.

"We have already rattled a few cages with our plans in the southern hemisphere and it is safe to say it will surpass anything that has ever existed before."