Francis Baron, the chief executive of the Rugby Football Union (RFU), has vowed to leave no stone unturned in a bid to re-establish the integrity of the game in England in the aftermath of the "bloodgate" affair.

The RFU's hopes that the furore over Harlequins' use of fake blood to facilitate advantageous substitutions would die down have been crushed by the publication of winger Tom Williams' testimony in his appeal against the one-year ban (reduced to four months on appeal) he received for his role in the scandal.

In it, Williams claimed to have been offered financial inducements by the club to help them cover up the full extent of their cheating, effectively dragging Quins chief executive, Mark Evans, and the chairman, Charles Jillings, into the scandal.

Williams ultimately opted to come clean about events surrounding his faked blood substitution during a European Cup match against Leinster in April, and his testimony was instrumental in ensuring Quins director of rugby Dean Richards was banned for three years while former club physio Steph Brennan received a two-year ban.

The publication of Williams' evidence put the RFU in an embarrassing position as it came out only a day after they had announced that they would not be taking any further action against Harlequins, despite evidence that there had been other instances of the club using fake blood in matches.

The RFU is now braced for further damaging revelations when other evidence from the appeals process is published next week and the governing body has admitted it could be forced to re-open its investigation.

The scandal could not have erupted at a worse time for rugby with the sport having recently been beset by a series of image-shredding problems, including eye-gouging incidents involving Sergio Parisse and Schalk Burger and the suspension of five Bath players for refusing to take drugs tests following allegations of cocaine use at an end-of-season party.

Baron is due to name the individuals who will make up a panel tasked with cleaning up the game on Friday.

"It has been an immensely disappointing summer. The incidents that have happened have done damage to the game and its image," he said.

"Judging by my mailbox, supporters are very disappointed with what's happened.

"Support for the game remains strong but fans don't like what has happened and expect something to be done about it.

"That is what we are doing and there will be no stone left unturned throughout the process.

"I'm setting up a heavyweight group of people. These are people covering different aspects of the game, experienced and very senior people.

"Everyone I've talked to feels the same way - we have got to re-establish in everybody's mind what the core values of our game are.

"Those values have made rugby union different and are things that our sponsors, TV partners and spectators buy into.

"If there has been slippage in some areas, and clearly there has been, we must make sure everybody is clear what those values are.

"If we have to change rules and regulations we will. We're determined to get this issue addressed and to do it quickly."

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