The Women’s Rugby World Cup trophy, which England won in 1994, has been found after 15 years – in an attic.

A new trophy was made for the 1998 tournament and it had resided in the World Rugby Museum in Twickenham.

Former England player Gill Burns, part of the 1994 side, was worried it had been “melted down somewhere” and has been “searching for it for a while’.

“It was in the museum briefly before it went back out on tour again and then a few years later we started asking ‘does anyone know where the World Cup is?’, and nobody knew where it was,” she said.

Burns, who played for England between 1988 and 2002, told BBC Radio 5 Live: “I used to point at it at the museum and say ‘here it is girls, that’s something for you to aspire to.’

“One of the administrators obviously ended up with the trophy at her parent’s house.

“All the old minutes of meeting and handbooks had been stored in a box along with a box that had the World Cup in.

“I don’t mind that it was lost because we found it again so I’m very happy.”

The trophy will be returned to the museum.