If Brian Ashton is a man under pressure, he does not show it. While speculation whirls around the England's coach's likely fate, should his side come unstuck against Ireland at Twickenham tomorrow, Ashton remains "comfortable" with his management throughout this RBS Six Nations Championship.

There is an added point in Ashton's favour. If he and, by extension, his coaching team of John Wells and Mike Ford, are judged not to be up to the task for the foreseeable future, what does that say about the body that confirmed them three short months ago? Rob Andrew, the Rugby Football Union's director of elite rugby, held an exhaustive review after the World Cup final and recommended no change.

The RFU management board accepted his findings so, for the whispering campaign to be growing now suggests that if Ashton and his colleagues go, so must others. There will be a review of the Six Nations campaign which, regardless of tomorrow's result, has not gone the way that England, administrators, players or supporters, would have liked but that happens anyway.

"I'm perfectly happy with how I operate," Ashton said at Twickenham today. "No-one has spoken to me about anything at all [regarding the future]. It's all pure speculation. I'm just trying to make sure that the side is in the right frame of mind and I can't imagine that changing between now and three o'clock tomorrow afternoon.

"I don't feel any pressure. I think people around me do and I'm talking family etc but I don't, and I won't do either. I know this business is results-driven but if anyone had been in camp with us, you would have seen a significant amount of progress from a group of players working really hard together to move our game forward."

The point about Ashton is that, at 61, he has been around rugby, amateur and professional, for long enough to know that the wind does not always blow in the same direction. In such circumstances, a coach has to remain true to his beliefs and Ashton has attempted to do that in trying circumstances; he received a hospital pass from the RFU in the first place, he has had to make do and mend for most of his time in the position and, since the depths of the 36-0 defeat by South Africa in September last year, his players have won six and lost three matches.

It is the nature of the loss to Scotland last weekend, so reminiscent of the rudderless game against the Springboks in the World Cup pool matches, that has summoned the demons now. But if their public contributions are any guide, the players are behind him; they would say that, the cynics will cry, and they will say the same if a new coaching panel comes in because they want to represent their country.

But coaches do not prepare sides to do the sort of things that England have perpetrated during this Six Nations. They do not expect to see a side bend and break as England did in the second half against Wales, nor make the basic errors which led by penalties and a virtuoso display of goal-kicking by Chris Paterson. England tomorrow must make a statement about themselves as players, never mind their coaches.