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Tickets are not the only commodity in short supply as England prepares to defend the rugby World Cup on Saturday. Official replica shirts sold out more than a week ago after the Rugby Football Union underestimated demand.

When the RFU placed its order at the end of last year, England had suffered a humiliating defeat to Argentina, the coach had just been replaced, and no one was predicting a place in the final.

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The result is that replica shirts are changing hands on eBay for more than double their £49.99 retail price.

Andy Ward, the head of retail at the RFU, says that he is delighted. He ordered 20,000 shirts from the manufacturer, Nike, and has sold every one. A further 20,000 shirts ordered by high street retailers have also sold out, with no prospect of fresh supplies before the big match.

Demand for the shirts, which feature the World Cup logo, has caught everyone by surprise, and not just because England were not expected to do as well as they have.

Mr Ward said: “It is a design people either love or hate, and fortunately it has proved very popular. I am just delighted that we have sold 46 per cent more than in 2003.”

Some retailers were apprehensive about ordering the tight-fitting shirts, because the physique of the average rugby fan is very different from that of the players. Even a moderate beer belly can cause the shirt to rise up, exposing an expanse of pasty flesh.

Fans who want to emulate their heroes will instead have to be content with the home strip, which features the logo of the team sponsors O2 instead of the IRB World Cup 2007 logo on the right side of the chest.

The replica shirts sold out after England’s victory over Australia, even before they defeated France.

Mr Ward added: “I don’t think it is a problem of not ordering enough. It is down to rugby fans really getting behind their team and supporting the underdog after coming through a pretty poor first two games.

“Every time England have won it has triggered a huge surge in demand for shirts. A lot of the big retailers have backed this World Cup and the shirts have been more available to buy this time round.”

The RFU, the governing body of English rugby, has sold the shirts through its online store and at its shop at the sport’s headquarters in Twickenham.

The organisation stands to make more than £12 million from merchandise sales during the tournament, eclipsing the £8 million made in 2003.

Professional rugby kit has been transformed in the past ten years. Baggy cotton shirts with collars and buttons have been replaced by shirts made from high-tech man-made materials that are designed to be hard to grab hold of and to dry instantly so that they do not become heavy and waterlogged.

Charlie Brooks, spokesman for Nike UK, said: “This has been the most successful shirt we have sold through the RFU. The market for replica rugby shirts is not as developed or established as for football shirts. Retailers didn’t want to order a whole load of them before the World Cup and find themselves sitting on them afterwards.

“We expected some sales in the build up to the tournament but there was a massive upsurge in sales after the Australia game and huge demand since the France match.”

But the replicas are not the same as the shirts that the team will be wearing to compete against South Africa. They feature “cross-directional” material and rubberised pads that make it easier for the player to keep hold of the ball while running. These shirts would have cost £90 each had they been available.

Simon O’Connor, of JMS Rugby in Bath, ordered 40 of the “authentic” shirts at the start of the year but they were never delivered because the manufacturer of the material went into liquidation before orders could be completed, leaving only enough for the England and France rugby teams. The shirts are now closely guarded as each player is issued two per match.

Replica shirts have been selling for up to £120 on eBay but one special shirt signed for charity by the entire England squad fetched £501.

However, there is some good news for rugby fans who just want a shirt to wear and do not care which team it belonged to. All Blacks replica shirts have been reduced from £42 to £31 as no one wants them.

The ticket hunt

A question of trust

The tickets are out there, but what to pay? The rugby community has deep pockets: yesterday some people were paying up to £3,000 on auction sites for tickets to the final. Watching the time expire on lots that seemed more reasonable, you wonder who you can trust. A man in North London is selling two tickets for £700 that he says he was given by his father. He cannot go because of unspecified “business”, and wants the payment to be made via a money transfer. By yesterday evening a lawyer from New Zealand had come down to about £900 for one of five tickets bought several months ago: the original asking price had been £2,000. I’m looking to do the whole trip in £1,000 so that is still beyond me.

Last-minute deals

The consensus among my fellow ticket-hunters seems to be that prices will come down as the week progresses. Ultimately, they say, the best time to buy will be just as the match starts. The alternative view, put to me by the head of Viagogo, one of the ticket exchange sites, was that prices will spike on Friday as people get more excited.

Official channels

In the meantime we all have an outside shot at one last official sale. Today the World Cup organising committee is selling a few hundred tickets that have been returned by extraordinarily honest media organisations and from countries knocked out of the tournament. They had refused to specify when the sale might start. “If we do that,” a man from the committee said, “our server will crash.” Later it was announced on the World Cup website as 10am French time.

. . . and unofficial contacts

Failing that, we are all working our contacts. “The New Zealand friend whose father has got tickets is most unreasonably still going to go,” a lady looking to supply her “rugby mad husband” wrote to me. “Have tried the Shroders banker friend, whose son my husband coaches, to no avail; left messages on answer machines of all the children’s godparents. So far no luck from the City solicitor, the City headhunter – maybe the lieutenant-colonel can arrange to shoot someone with tickets.”

WILL PAVIA

— The Queen is looking forward to watching the rugby union World Cup final and hoping for victory, Andrew Chalmers, chairman of the New Zealand rugby league team, said after a Buckingham Palace reception. Clinton Toopi, a team member, said: “We mentioned how Jonny Wilkinson helped England and she piped up and said about his kicking ability and how he had played. She said she wanted England to win.”