Judge Jeff Blackett, in his role as the RFU's disciplinary officer, has always insisted on giving chapter and verse in his legal procedure and few stones have been left unturned in his report on alleged misconduct during England's tour to New Zealand last month. But even though his main criticisms are reserved for media reporting of the events in Auckland as June 14 turned into June 15 after England's 37-20 defeat by the All Blacks in the first international, and for how information about allegations of sexual abuse were released by local solicitors and the police, his detailed analysis contains implicit criticism of what is regarded as standard practice in international rugby.

It has become customary in New Zealand for international matches to kick off in the evening; many World Cup matches are played at this time, as are matches in France. Players, therefore, do not eat until about 11pm and it is past midnight before they can begin to unwind.

In this instance Tony Ward, the manager supplied to the England party by the New Zealand RFU, had arranged for players to go to two Auckland bars after the match, both of which ran a tab provided by sponsors or breweries. He also organised security for the players, to help to avoid unwanted intrusion. So far, so familiar and Blackett clears the England management, headed by Rob Andrew, the director of elite rugby, of blame for what followed. “It was entirely reasonable for the tour management to agree to post-match arrangements which were standard for New Zealand,” the report says.

Sunday being a travelling day, the only commitment for players was to see the team physiotherapists and to have a rehabilitation session in the swimming pool before the flight to Christchurch for the second international. A number of players went to the bars recommended by Ward. Those not named in England's elite squad in January, which included Mike Brown, Danny Care and Topsy Ojo, did not receive the squad's code of conduct, but understood that they should do nothing to bring the game or the RFU into disrepute.

After dinner, some players went to the Pasha Bar in Auckland, including Brown and Ojo, who fell into conversation with the 18-year-old woman who subsequently alleged sexual abuse. She had earlier spoken with Ward and agreed to go with some players to another bar, the Degree, where there were also free drinks.

The group then moved to the Pony Club, a bar well known to local sportsmen, where there was no tab. Several All Blacks players were there and at some stage Ojo and the complainant kissed and she gave her mobile phone number to Brown. She moved on, but an exchange of text messages took the players to the Spy Bar, where they caught up with the woman again.

They left at 7am and the woman said that her car was near the team hotel, the Hilton. The woman accepted an invitation to Brown's room. Less than an hour later Ojo knocked on Brown's door to remind him of his appointment with the physiotherapist and, while the full back was gone, Ojo remained with the complainant. Brown and Ojo agreed that they had “a consensual relationship” with the woman. Subsequently Care and Strettle, via the connecting door with their room, went to remind Ojo of the rehabilitation session at the swimming pool. Ojo accompanied the complainant to the hotel lobby and Blackett has evidence that, although the woman appeared embarrassed, she did not seem distressed.

Subsequently, according to Chapman Tripp, an Auckland firm of solicitors, the woman alleged sexual violation by four of the players, although the police sought to interview only three. They did not want to question Strettle, later the subject of a “kiss and tell” report in an English Sunday newspaper, but did seek information from an unnamed fifth player, whose room was near Brown's.

The woman has not laid a formal complaint, nor allowed cross-examination, but Blackett said that all the players “vehemently deny the complainant's version of events in respect to non-consensual activity. The players have not had the opportunity to clear their names of any wrongdoing.”

Blackett said that it was not his place to make moral judgments about the consensual activities of young men and women. “On this tour there was no prohibition on taking young, unknown female guests back to the team hotel, although one was put in place before the second Test match, and in my view that prohibition should now be included as part of any new code of conduct,” he said.