The Rugby Football Union would consider staging England matches during the Six Nations on Friday nights if it works for broadcasters amid a push from organisers for unions to show more flexibility on kick-off times.

This year’s Six Nations begins on Friday night with France hosting Wales at 9.15pm local time while Les Bleus were beaten by Ireland in an evening curtain-raiser in Marseille a year ago. England have never done so in the tournament’s history, however, with France and Wales the only nations to host Friday night matches since the first in 2009.

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England overcame logistical and traffic issues to play their 2015 World Cup opener against Fiji at Twickenham on a Friday but the former chief executive Ian Ritchie flat out refused to entertain the idea during the Six Nations when organisers made similar attempts to encourage more nations to do so.

Two of England’s three home matches this year kick off at 4.45pm on Saturdays – the other is on a Sunday at 3pm – and that remains the RFU’s clear preference for transport, operations, commercial and safety reasons but insiders have not ruled out Friday night fixtures at Twickenham if it suits broadcasters. Last August, Twickenham played host to a World Cup warm-up match between New Zealand and South Africa on a Friday night and attracted a crowd of more than 80,000.

The existing TV deal for the Six Nations – a shared arrangement between the BBC and ITV – ends after this year’s championship. Organisers are open to a deal involving a subscription broadcaster and TNT is known to be strongly considering a bid. An arrangement that would see some of the tournament remain on free-to-air is considered a realistic possibility but it would remain to be seen whether England home matches – which are currently all shown on ITV – would go behind a paywall.

Until that deal is finalised, the fixtures for next year’s championship cannot be scheduled. The suggestion is that more flexibility from all unions on kick-off times could make bidding for the TV rights more appealing to broadcasters. In June, meanwhile, the British & Irish Lions will play a warm-up match on a Friday night in Dublin against Argentina before heading to Australia.

Staging Friday night matches at Twickenham would not come without hurdles, however. The RFU was forced to defend its crowd control measures after concerns were raised following the November defeat by South Africa amid fears of crushing in a car park while Twickenham rail station always reaches gridlock on match days. A key part of the RFU’s stadium masterplan, however, is to reduce reliance on Twickenham station.

In October, the RFU launched a consultation project with Richmond and Hounslow councils in an effort to stage more non-rugby events at Twickenham. At present Twickenham is only able to stage three concerts a year with a limited capacity of 55,000. The union wants to increase that to 15 and at full, 82,000 capacity in an effort to compete with Wembley and Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Doing so would generate significant income to go towards the planned Twickenham rebuild, which, if carried out in its entirety, would cost around £660m.

England’s Ben Curry has backed twin brother Tom to rise to the challenge of Ireland’s lineout after Steve Borthwick admitted it was a selection gamble to pair the twins together at the expense of another jumper.

Ireland, meanwhile, have picked Ryan Baird, a lock by trade, at blindside flanker but Ben Curry said: “We’ve had two weeks to prepare our lineout for this. We’re very confident in our preparation. People forget Tom is a very good lineout jumper. Obviously he’s not the tallest person, but he’s jumped in a World Cup final, so I trust Tom.”