Last week the Football Association confirmed Sue Day will be become director of women’s football at the round-ball governing body from December.

A former Red Roses captain and prolific try scorer, Day has been chief financial officer and chief operating officer at the RFU for the past five years.

Sweeney knew Day had been looking to move on and confirmed they had “worked together on this exit” and that it’s “a great move for her”.

“Of course, we will miss her,” said Sweeney.

“She’s a unique character in terms of her background, her knowledge of the game, her credibility in playing the game and her financial skills.

“But this happens in life – people move on and do different things. We always want to have the situation at the RFU where people can come in and feel like they’ve achieved what they want to achieve. If they want to go on somewhere else, we’ll always encourage that.”

He confirmed that the search for Day’s successor was under way and despite her having two roles it was likely that they wanted to bring in one person, but they might “rejig” the executive board depending on who that person is.