Four England rugby players in New Zealand sex allegations are named

The Sun claimed that Danny Care, Topsy Ojo, Mike Brown and David Strettle were the players involved in the incident which has marred England's disastrous tour.

The allegations relate to an incident on June 14 after the first of two heavy series defeats by the All Blacks. England lost 44-12 on Saturday in Christchurch, which followed the 37-20 loss in Auckland the previous week.

Topsy Ojo

Danny Care

Mike Brown

David Strettle

Two of the players reportedly accept that they had sex with an 18-year-old lapdancer at Auckland's Hilton Hotel, while two admit watching. The players maintain that the sex was consensual.

The woman they spent the evening with has declined to make a formal complaint to police.

All four players - Care, Brown and Strettle all of Harlequins and London Irish star Ojo -  deny any wrongdoing and are desperate to clear their names.

A source close to the team said: 'The players involved feel under pressure and angry. They are single guys who said they did nothing wrong. Players who had nothing to do with it are furious too. The whole squad feels it will stay under a shadow until the air is cleared.'

But it is now believed that up to nine players were involved in two separate incidents at the team hotel.

Sofie Lewis, 22, also known as lapdancer Angel Barbie, told newspapers in Auckland that she and about four others went back to the hotel with English players after drinking with them in a bar.

She claimed she spent the night with one player and later in the morning four others came into the room and pulled the duvet off them. The reports said Miss Lewis was not the woman involved in the serious allegation reported to police.

RFU chief executive Francis Baron said yesterday after the squad arrived home: 'If a complaint is not made in the next two to three days, I'm sure our legal team will be pressing police to close the file because it is a very unusual situation. In our view those boys are innocent.'