Women were taken from the Pony Club nightclub in Auckland in a minibus laid on by English rugby team minders to the team's hotel the night one of the women was allegedly raped.

The involvement of the minders, who were supposed to be watching the team's behaviour, was revealed by New Zealand model Sophie Lewis in the British tabloid News of the World.

She also named the England player she earlier said "kept going like the Energizer Bunny in the ads" as winger David Strettle.

Lewis' tell-all came as the team flew out of New Zealand yesterday while police investigated the claim that a woman was raped by four players at Auckland's Hilton Hotel.

The identities of the four, who deny the allegations, could be revealed in the next few days.

England's Rugby Football Union said it was considering naming the players so the rest of the team would not be tainted by association. The union may also conduct its own investigation.

"Clearly, we have to do something," the union's disciplinary officer Jeff Blackett told British newspaper The Daily Telegraph.

"The team can't come back and nothing happens. Something's got to happen and something has to be made public."

Before the team flew back to Britain yesterday, lock Nick Kennedy said he was looking forward to leaving. "It's been a really long three weeks. I'm really pleased to be going home."

Rugby Football Union chief executive Francis Baron said the players were desperate to prove their innocence.

Regardless, the team had been banned from taking women back to their hotel rooms while on tour. The condition would be written into their contracts from next month.

The woman alleging she was raped - who has yet to make a formal complaint -sought hospital treatment and complained to police on the day of the alleged incident, The Sunday Star-Times reported.

She was medically examined by police doctors, but it was not known what, if any, injuries she had.

Police spokeswoman Noreen Hegarty said a formal complaint could be made at any time and police then had to assess the evidential basis of that complaint.

The woman and others, including Lewis, had earlier been drinking with England players at the Pony Club.

Lewis, understood to have been paid $NZ12,000 for her story, said her night with Strettle, 24, "was just about the best sex I've ever had".

"His body was pretty much a perfect 10. He was such an accomplished lover and we did it in every position imaginable. But maybe he shouldn't have been behaving like this on an international rugby tour."