England’s loss to Wales might have dampened the host nation’s hopes of winning the Rugby World Cup – but the defeat has done nothing to quench home fans’ thirst for tickets.

Due to many fans missing out on buying tickets through official channels, tickets sold on reselling sites such as StubHub and Viagogo are changing hands for mind-boggling prices.

A spokesperson for Viagogo said that two tickets for England’s crucial game against Australia this weekend have been sold for £4,000 each – despite their face value of £315.

“It’s the highest ticket price ever paid for a non-finals ticket, not just in rugby, but across all events on our website since it launched in 2006,” she said.

“Previously, the highest priced ticket paid for a non-final sporting event was £2,800 each for a pair of tickets to Andy Murray’s Semi-Final in 2013.”

The record of £4,000, however, is unlikely to stand for very long – and could reach unimaginable heights.

Tickets for the final at Twickenham are currently listed on Viagogo for as high as £60,000 – an eye-watering 83 times their original face value of £715.

Final tickets are also available from Stubhub – with the best seats available at the relative bargain price of £27,140 each.

Some tickets remain available for their original face value from the Rugby World Cup’s official ticket exchange – but mostly for games involving teams not expected to advance from their group.

The tournament has already broken all previous ticket sales records and looks set to be the most viewed in Rugby World Cup history.

So far, more than 2.25m tickets – 95 per cent of the total number – have been sold to games which are being hosted across 13 venues in England and Wales, easily surpassing the record set in 2007.