The future of Brian Ashton as England head coach remains in the balance despite England's 33-10 victory over Ireland on Saturday. The RFU's management board, which will make the ultimate decision, was split on Saturday night after the game as to whether England's stirring triumph was sufficient to extend Ashton and his coaching staff even as far as England's tour to New Zealand in June. Five of the management board were in favour of making change quickly, four swung heavily in the opposing direction and another four remained floating voters.

They will meet to discuss these matters on Wednesday week. It is not insignificant that at the meeting of the RFU council last Friday, Martyn Thomas, the RFU chairman, made it clear that he had asked Rob Andrew, the RFU's director of elite rugby, to have his post-RBS Six Nations Championship report ready for debate at that board meeting.

After last year's World Cup, Andrew conducted a review that required nearly two months to be completed. The feeling in the RFU now is that if it is to execute change, it does not have such luxury of time now. One particular concern is the world rankings, which, on December 1, will dictate seedings for the 2011 World Cup. England lay fifth before the Ireland game and, clearly, would like to shift up to fourth or better to ensure an easier draw in the quarter-finals.

Thus there is a desire for quick action, which partly explains why there is no appetite for Andrew to conduct interviews with the players, as he did after the World Cup. Andrew said that his feedback post-World Cup was that the players were happy with the existing set-up, however, the RFU is receiving enough information from the clubs at present to persuade it that, even if that was the case before - and there is considerable disagreement on this - it is certainly not now. As one insider said of the culture around the England squad: “By all accounts, it's a disaster.”

Yet it is not just Ashton's job but also Andrew's that is beginning to come under scrutiny. Members of the council were asking privately on Friday what exactly it is that he is supposed to have achieved. His credibility faces a further challenge if he gives Ashton his backing in his Six Nations review and then discovers that he cannot carry the management board with him.

There can be little doubt that the seeds of uncertainty that Shaun Edwards, the part-time Wales defence coach, sowed on Saturday after his side completed the grand slam, will have the ears of sections of the RFU buzzing. Edwards's comment was that his future with Wales was “up in the air”. A qualification then came from Roger Lewis, the Welsh Rugby Union chief executive, who said that he would be “very surprised if Shaun is not here [in Wales] in the autumn”.

The view of Warren Gatland, the Wales head coach, was interesting. “Why would Shaun want to leave a set-up like this with the people he's been working with?” he said. The implication here is that Edwards, also the London Wasps head coach, would be happier working with Gatland, his former colleague at Wasps, who is his friend, than Andrew, who is not. This, though, will not quell fears in Wales that their wealthier brothers in the RFU will come wielding the chequebook.

Those in the RFU who would back such a move have no time for the idea that Saturday was some kind of brave new dawn. Danny Cipriani certainly gave notice of the shape of things to come, but his success works as much for Ashton as against. If Cipriani was so good, then why, some are asking, was he not playing before?

The deeper concern for England is why there is no continuity to the good performances such as that against Ireland. They seem to come once in a while and usually after a miserable defeat. And it cannot help much that Ashton does not know why such inconsistency haunts his team.

“You do get concerned after a while because you wonder why it [the good performances] is not happening,” he said. “The rebound effect from last week [against Scotland] was a massive stimulus. One lesson is: we actually don't want to do it off the back of a defeat, we want to do it off the back of a victory.”

But Ashton appears no wiser than anyone else as to whether it will be him who gets to teach this lesson. “Whether I'm staying in the job,” he said, “I've no idea. People constantly question you, don't they? That's the way things happen.” Indeed, and this time it will happen fast.