Rob Andrew, the RFU's director of elite rugby, will leave questions over the future of the England coaching team behind him when he goes on holiday to Greece this evening. Before he leaves, he will meet Martin Johnson, England's World Cup-winning captain in 2003, with a view to sounding him out on a possible role that he may play within the management set-up.

The indications from Twickenham are that Andrew will back Brian Ashton to stay on in his role as head coach, which makes it difficult to see how he could create a workable structure that would house Johnson, too.

Insiders suggested yesterday that Andrew was also to meet Jake White, the former South Africa coach. However, when Andrew returns from Greece for the day on Wednesday to present his post-Six Nations review to the RFU's management board, it is believed that he will give Ashton his support. Ashton, though, has made it clear that, although he is keen to have a team manager, he does not want anyone who expects to be instrumental in matters such as selection.

Johnson acknowledges that he has little coaching experience and that he would not want to coach, but he would not be interested in taking a purely front-of-house role. His strength would be in developing the culture of a winning team, which starts with the business of selection.

Ideal for the managerial position, in Ashton's view, is Phil de Glanville, another former England captain, whom he met before the RBS Six Nations Championship. They agreed at that meeting that they would be interested in resuming their talks once the tournament had concluded, but De Glanville has not heard from Ashton since.

“If the role was the right one, then I would certainly be interested,” De Glanville said yesterday. He also said that he was comfortable not to be involved in team coaching and selection because recent years working for Sport England had made management his particular forte.

If England had been more successful in the Six Nations, it seems Ashton would have been able to pick his own man. Yet Andrew is driving developments and it appears that he is aiming at a solution that either Ashton or Johnson would find hard to accept.

This was the view of Dean Richards, who was a team-mate and team manager to Johnson at Leicester, his former club. An individual such as Johnson would want total control, Richards believes. “That could make Brian and the other coaches a bit nervous,” he said. “But Martin's understanding of the game is very high, second to none.” But for many, the time has come for Andrew to stamp his authority on the situation and the concern is that he is being pushed towards his decisions by his employers.

“I think this is a defining moment for Rob,” Simon Halliday, the former England player and member of Club England, the RFU committee, said yesterday. “People's reservations with him are that he hasn't stood up to be counted. He has to do that now. We have an unprecedented number of young, quality players right now. Our job is to harness them. You can achieve great things by getting your structure right. Just look at Wales.”

There is a belief at Leicester that he is ready to reposition himself in the context of the game, in which he has enjoyed a peripheral role as commentator and ambassador for the past three years. “I sense that Martin is at that period of his life, post-retirement, when he is looking at the next stage,” Peter Wheeler, the club's chief executive, said.

Kay, Johnson's wife, is pregnant with their second child, but he has agreed to a hands-on role as a member of the Professional Game Board, which will run the elite game in England from July. Were he to have a management role with England, that would contribute towards the nonpartisan atmosphere that his colleagues in his other role are seeking.

At the same time, the RFU must cover the imminent departure of Conor O'Shea, the former Ireland full back who has accepted a job as national director of the English Institute of Sport. O'Shea has been the director of the national academy for the past two years and will begin his new post before the Olympic Games in August.

There is speculation that John Fletcher, deposed as director of rugby at Newcastle Falcons this month, may be heading for the RFU, bringing with him considerable experience of running the Newcastle academy.