Martyn Thomas has revealed that he did not participate in the investigation into the leaked reports © Getty Images

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Former Rugby Football Union chairman Martyn Thomas insists he did not leak the damaging reports into England's World Cup fiasco to a national newspaper but has confirmed he refused to take part in the subsequent investigation.

His declaration comes a day after the Rugby Players' Association's chief executive Damian Hopley called for the RFU to publish the results of the investigation into who leaked a series of documents to The Times that revealed widespread disharmony in the England camp.

Investigators Monitor Quest were hired by the RFU to identify who was responsible for the leak and have since delivered their findings to English rugby's governing body who have so far refrained from making them public. Hopley, who will address the RFU's latest council meeting today, demanded accountability and to know the identity of the one person out of the 25 people privy to the contents of the infamous World cup report who refused to speak to investigators. Thomas has now confirmed that it was him who refused to co-operate, citing an earlier run-in with RFU judicial officer Jeff Blackett, but stressed he was not the source of the leak.

"It was once bitten, twice shy as far as I was concerned with Jeff Blackett," Thomas told The Daily Telegraph. "In the light of what happened with the Blackett Report I wasn't going to put my head on the block a second time. I refused point blank. Friends did warn that people would think that I was the mole. But I wasn't.

"I never actually saw the players' report. It was automatically blocked on the computer because it contained bad language. I told this to the RFU legal department when everything blew up and they confirmed that there was an IT filter. I was informed that the written document was later put on my desk. I never saw that either."