No one should undervalue Wales's success in winning this year's RBS Six Nations Championship. From failing to qualify for the knockout phase of the World Cup less than six months ago to grand-slam heroes is a giant stride and the nature of the rugby they are playing suggests that they can challenge South Africa when they play the world champions in June.

But even in the hour of victory Warren Gatland threw a bucket of cold reality on the achievement - that this Six Nations has been of a variable standard because so many of the countries involved have been below par. “We have got stronger from game to game, but we have to keep our feet on the ground,” the Wales head coach said. “The tournament at the moment is in transition; it will be stronger as teams get better.”

It was Wales's triumph that the players took to Gatland and his new coaching panel like ducks to water. “I took the job when Wales were tenth in the world - they couldn't get much lower, but I could see the potential,” he said, and in the past seven weeks Wales have leapt to sixth in the updated IRB rankings.

The irony is that England, kicked by the critics from here to doomsday, remain the leading European nation in fifth place. Over the past 15 months - that is, Brian Ashton's tenure - they have reached a World Cup final, terminated a run of overseas failures, come second in the Six Nations (their highest placing since the 2003 grand slam), beaten France in Paris twice in five months and ended a four-year run of Ireland success.

All this against a background of club-versus-country strife (the new eight-year agreement does not take effect until July), injuries to and retirement of key players and a bizarre sequence of illnesses. “Given that context, I bet a lot of people at the start of this season would have been happy to take a World Cup final appearance and second place in the championship,” Ashton, the head coach, said.

He meets Rob Andrew today, along with the coaches of England Saxons and the under-20 team, who won the junior grand slam, to discuss the initial implementation of the agreement with the Guinness Premiership clubs. They, at least, are looking to a medium-term future even while the wolves prowl, sniffing the blood not only of the head coach but of Andrew, the RFU's director of elite rugby.

There is little need for a Six Nations review as such, given that Andrew and Ashton have talked of little else as the championship has unfolded. The buck passes to Andrew, who must convince the RFU management board on March 26 that progress is being made.

“Everyone is quick to point the finger at Brian Ashton, but it's not one individual that makes a successful coaching set-up,” Lawrence Dallaglio, the former England captain, said. “It's the chemistry between the coaches and players, between the coaches themselves. I think Brian is a very good coach, but is the chemistry between the coaches working? I don't know if Brian has had the opportunity to pick and choose the people he works with.”

Wales produced the right chemistry when, having employed Gatland, they also found a way of giving him Shaun Edwards and Rob Howley as right-hand men, but that was Gatland's choice, based on the respect and friendship established when all three were at London Wasps together.

Ashton did not have the luxury of a similar choice, yet there is bewilderment among the members of the England coaching panel that they are perceived as being at odds with each other and that the environment thay have created for the players is seen by outsiders as poor.

It is surely better than that of France, Ireland and Scotland, whose form has dipped, although it would be no surprise to see Marc Lièvremont, who is just settling into place as coach of France, making progress after the incessant tinkering in selection of this Six Nations. Italy finished on a high with victory over Scotland under the management of Nick Mallett, who now has the chance, too, to leave his imprint.

Best of 2008 Six Nations

15 Lee Byrne (Wales)

14 Shane Williams (Wales)

13 Tom Shanklin (Wales)

12 Gavin Henson (Wales)

11 Vincent Clerc (France)

10 Stephen Jones (Wales)

9 Mike Phillips (Wales)

1 Andrew Sheridan (England)

2 Leonardo Ghiraldini (Italy)

3 Phil Vickery (England)

4 Nathan Hines (Scotland)

5 Alun-Wyn Jones (Wales)

6 Ryan Jones (Wales, captain),

7 Martyn Williams (Wales)

8 Sergio Parisse (Italy)

Replacements

16 Dimitri Szarzewski (France)

17 Gethin Jenkins (Wales)

18 Lionel Nallet (France)

19 Alasdair Strokosch (Scotland)

20 Mike Blair (Scotland)

21 James Hook (Wales)

22 Geordan Murphy (Ireland)

— Chosen by David Hands