AMID ALL the frenzied stories that swirled and spiralled out of an England camp that lost control on and off the field in New Zealand, it was easy to overlook the announcement from HQ. Brian Ashton, we were told, was going to have to make his mind up, and quickly, if he was to accept Rob Andrew’s guilt-ridden offering of relocation to the role of national academy manager. It was whispered that if he spurned the job he might even be in breach of contract. Honestly.

Last week the same story was being leaked from that 81,000 seat sieve of a national stadium, Twickenham. In the process, the man who took England to a World Cup final and second place in the Six Nations (not actually that much of an achievement when France are messing around, but still, better than most recent England teams) was being smeared as the obstacle to an agreement by the very people who had treated him so despicably only a few months ago.

Tomorrow, if you believe the rumours which are blown to all parts from Twickenham, Ashton will have to put up or shut up. It beggars belief; that is if the track record of the body that “governs” the national game was not so soiled in recent months. While a steady barrage of leaks - some controlled, others less so - has emanated from southwest London, the former manager has kept his own counsel, apart, presumably, from his legal counsel.

He was still doing so last week as the welter of words continued to make their one-way path towards his door. Clearly he has been kept on a tight legal brief but it is equally significant that he has issued absolutely nothing upon which his detractors can leap down his throat.

The silence of Ashton suggests that he is prepared to continue to keep his own counsel and return to work alongside an awful lot of people who are going to swivel their heads in another direction when he walks towards them. Andrew’s role in his departure will make this the most difficult of arrangements but there are plenty of reasons to think Ashton will revert to the role of academy director to guide the country’s next generation of talent.

Twinned with the dignified silence he has maintained is the fact that these players and coaches who the rest of us think should “do the right thing,” whatever it may be, for country, are professional people trying to pay the mortgage and the school bills. In short, they are in the same position as you and I. Ashton’s predecessor, Andy Robinson, oversaw the dismantling of his friends in management and actually stated that after the “due process” of the RFU’s investigation, the decision to let the majority of them go was the right one. If you reside in Utopia you might call this treachery, in the grim real world we inhabit, it was plain pragmatic realism. Only a hypocrite or a saint had a right to expect Robinson to walk.

Similarly, only somebody detached from planet earth would not understand why the 61-year-old Ashton would not return to the scene of – let’s not toy with words – his humiliation. He is reputed to be on a four-year rolling contract that would take him nicely to 65 years of age. Had he found the sour nature of his plotted demise unacceptable he would surely have snapped by now.

Reticence as a head coach was his undoing but with the blood boiling it might be his ally in seeing out a superb coaching career to retirement age. Watching John Wells, Mike Ford, Jon Callard and Andrew making a botch of New Zealand and considering that Ashton was the only member of the management team discarded by Martin Johnson, left one with a queasy feeling. That queasiness wandered from the fields of rugby to the alleged sordidness or worse of Auckland and it might just be that the headline incident of last week is another reason for any perceived inaction on the part of Ashton.

The two men who one assumes would have to finalise Ashton’s contract would be Andrew and Francis Baron. Andrew had his own plate full of playing problems from day one while the chief executive was himself hurled into the maelstrom, leaving who exactly to sort out the finer details of an initial contract that, due to previous circumstances, is bound to be closely evaluated by the legal teams of both sides?

The employer is embarrassed by the employee and the employee does not trust his employer; it is fair to say that any contractual agreement will be considerably more watertight than the much feted defensive English midfield prior to the second Test. Ashton will do this job; he relished it first time around and has the skills to elevate a coaching system that occasionally appears elite in name only.

Knowing the man in a rugby capacity for a quarter of a century I would hazard a guess that his mind has long been made up, but he has been bitten and bitten hard. England does not deserve Ashton but he has earned his pay day and can add some clarity to young brains that are frequently gym befuddled. If he does not sign, mark Twickenham officially brain dead.