An agreement between the England squad and the Rugby Football Union was thrashed out at Twickenham on Wednesday morning, and then ratified by the RFU management board.

A �6m package over four years should guarantee England players around �70,000 per annum for their international commitments.

RFU chief executive Francis Baron, who like England manager Clive Woodward was left exasperated by the collapse of pay talks on Monday, said he was delighted the potential strike had been averted.

The dispute centred around players wanting a higher match fee in proportion to win bonuses than Twickenham chiefs were prepared to offer.

But the threat of matters escalating soon disappeared, with Baron revealing that agreement had been reached "based on the RFU proposals tabled on Monday".

Regretful

Fellow committee member Fran Cotton described the actions of the players as "unfortunate".

"I think the decision the players took was ill-judged," he said.

"There was clearly a misunderstanding and when the players had an opportunity to take a closer look at what they had been offered they realised it was better than they had originally thought."

Cotton admitted the episode had left a bitter taste in the mouths of all concerned.

"There's going to have to be a healing process," he said.

"Clive (Woodward) will have sit down with the players and thrash it out."

Back on the field, England hooker Phil Greening took no part in the warm-up before training.

The Wasps hooker suffered a dead leg during England's 22-19 victory over world champions Australia last Saturday, increasing the prospects of Bath's Mark Regan making his first Test start since February 1998.