In a first for the Rugby World Cup, fans donated more than £215,000 ($320,000/€293,000) through voluntary opt-in donations when buying tickets via the official channels online.

A further £850,000 ($1.3 million/€1.2 million) was raised through text donations, online contributions and fund matching in a joint programme between World Rugby, WFP, the host broadcaster ITV and the UK Government's UK Aid scheme.

The funds raised will be used to help WFP reach those who have been caught up in emergencies caused by natural disasters or war and to feed children who are beneficiaries of WFP's global school meal programme, providing approximately six million school meals.

"On behalf of World Rugby and the Tackle Hunger programme, I would like to thank the incredible fans attending, watching and engaging with Rugby World Cup 2015," said World Rugby chairman Bernard Lapasset.

"Their incredible generosity truly embodies the passion and solidarity behind sport's ability to make a real difference and drive social change.

"World Rugby, Rugby World Cup and the global rugby family have proudly supported the important work of the World Food Programme since 2003 in their goal to achieve zero hunger and through this partnership, supported by fans and stakeholders, funds have been raised to provide millions of meals to children and families across the world faced with a daily struggle to access nutritious food.

"This generosity helped highlight the importance of good nutrition not just to play rugby but also to give children a brighter future and get the food they need to reach their full physical and intellectual potential."

With 48 matches taking place across 13 venues at the Rugby World Cup , in-stadia activations supported by participating teams were complimented by a social media campaign and ITV's own channels, which featured a series of live reports from a WFP school feeding programme in Malawi.

Rugby World Cup worldwide partner DHL and official hospitality provider Rugby Travel & Hospitality supported the campaign throughout with internal and public-facing activities to help promote the Tackle Hunger message.

The England 2015 Organising Committee and media partners also provided exposure at no cost through print, online and broadcast promotion.

Greg Barrow, head of WFP's London office, added: "Once again, the rugby community has come together to support families who face a daily struggle to put nutritious food on the table.

"By raising funds and awareness about the vital work of the World Food Programme around the world, the Tackle Hunger campaign provided a rallying point for the rugby community at one of the world's biggest sporting events and helped WFP to harness the generosity of fans attending matches and watching on TV."

The 2015 Rugby World Cup was declared as the biggest and best ever by tournament owners and organisers in the aftermath. 

World Rugby and England Rugby 2015 hailed the success of the event, which concluded on October 31 when New Zealand beat Australia to defend their crown in front of a sell-out 80,125 crowd at Twickenham Stadium.

A number of records were broken off the pitch with ticket sales eclipsing 2.47 million across all the matches, the official fanzone attendance surpassing the one million mark, and Wembley Stadium drawing two consecutive Rugby World Cup attendance records.

A total of 89,267 turned out to watch Ireland’s clash with Romania on September 27, breaking the previous record of 89,019 for New Zealand's victory over Argentina the previous week.