RUGBY:The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) have extended their title sponsorship of the Six Nations Championship for a further four years, stating the agreement meets their "very specific business objectives".

The new deal, which will be officially announced at the media launch of this year’s competition next Wednesday, will take the bank’s sponsorship of the Six Nations through to 2013.

An RBS spokesperson said: “We have been in discussion with the Six Nations Committee about the renewal of the title sponsorship and agreed to extend this through to 2013.

“The RBS 6 Nations sponsorship has been selected to meet very specific business objectives within the six competing nations.”

Shares in the troubled bank slumped on Monday, losing 70 per cent of their value at one stage, as it was estimated they could be left up to £28billion (€30b) in the red for the past calendar year.

That would constitute the worst loss in UK corporate history, higher than the current record of £15b (€16b) set by mobile phone group Vodafone in 2006.

However, RBS have defended the new Six Nations agreement and stated they will be reviewing where they can make economies in their sponsorship programmes within contractual obligations.

“We recognise the need to ensure that our sponsorship activity reflects the process of restructuring that the bank has under way,” the spokesperson added.

“We are trying our best to strike the appropriate balance within the constraints of both contractual obligations and of course maintaining the benefit of some key activities to our customer businesses.”

RBS have sponsored the Six Nations since 2003 and negotiations over their new contract began after last year’s tournament. The new deal begins at the end of this year’s event.