BMW, who also support a number of motorsport events and golf tournaments, will support the RFU for four years, taking in the England hosted 2015 World Cup.

The RFU have been busy recently, securing a kit deal with Canterbury and sponsorship deals with phone giant O2 and GlaxoSmithKline.

It caps an exciting period for Sophie Goldschmidt, who only joined the RFU as chief commercial officer last year from the National Basketball Association.

"We are delighted to be entering into a new partnership with BMW Group UK, a company renowned both for the excellence of its vehicles and for supporting the development of athletes," she said.

"As one of the leading global automotive brands who pride themselves on performance, we are really looking forward to working with them at various levels from September."

It has been an eventful time of late for the RFU, who parted company with chief executive John Steele last year, with Ian Ritchie (pictured above, right) replacing him.

It also saw Rob Andrew stripped of responsibility for the senior rugby team after their debacle in New Zealand at the 2011 World Cup.

England had a poor tournament, going out to France in the quarter finals, leading to the sacking of coach Martin Johnson.

Off the field indiscretions by senior players led to further marring of both the team and the RFU. 

Stuart Lancaster (pictured above, left) replaced Johnson full time last month following an impressive Six Nations campaign, where England (pictured below in white) finished behind tournament winners Wales.


Lancaster said: "Putting in place the right player development programmes is critical if we are to make England successful, not just in 2015 but beyond.

"We are now seeing the fruits of our age grade representative structure and BMW's support of that will be a massive boost to them."

BMW, the official automotive partner for London 2012, will invest in various age levels of the elite England rugby teams, from the senior side to the under-16s, as well as helping grassroots rugby – and will also engage rugby fans through the RFU's digital platforms.

Tim Abbott, managing director of BMW Group UK, said. "The game is a perfect brand fit for us and this news comes as a natural extension of the work we have already done to support some of the UK's leading sports stars."

As part of their involvement with London 2012, BMW have a number of athlete ambassadors, including World triathlon champion Alistair Brownlee, triple Olympic gold medal winning cyclist Bradley Wiggins and former decathlon great Daley Thompson, the first person to hold the World, Olympic, Commonwealth and European titles simultaneously.

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