There is every possibility that by the end of today's meeting of the RFU's management board Brian Ashton will be no wiser about his long-term future as England head coach than he is this morning. For all the hyperbole that has been attached to the possibility of Martin Johnson becoming involved in England's management and the ramifications that may have, the board meeting is seen as an interim step.

When its members shuffle their chairs into place at Twickenham, they will expect to hear Rob Andrew's view of the short and medium-term future of the national team. Whether that will involve Johnson, the World Cup-winning captain of 2003, is not entirely in their gift; he has spoken to Andrew, the RFU's director of elite rugby, but he has first to decide whether the opportunity is of interest and those close to him say that he has not done that yet.

Johnson has always scornfully rejected the notion that his success as a player and, more particularly, a leader on the field would necessarily transpose to a different role. He has never seen himself as a coach, so the option on the table must be that of a football-style manager, the glue holding together a coterie of coaches, which was effectively what Sir Clive Woodward did so successfully with England (although not with the Lions).

Woodward, though, acquired that status at a time when the RFU was racked with internal dissension and formed an alliance with another man new to the union's inner workings, Francis Baron, the chief executive. The two parted company in 2004, by which time the landscape was different, but since then the elite atmosphere that Woodward created has been progressively dismantled.

Andy Robinson fought against it during his time as Woodward's successor as England head coach, Ashton has followed suit and that he is in a kind of limbo is as much the result of the RFU's failings as his weaknesses. Ashton is no Woodward - his thought processes occupy, in some ways, a purer rugby plane - but he has a vision for the game that he would happily share with his employers, if only someone would ask him.

“If the decision is that we're making progress, then great,” Martyn Thomas, the management board chairman, said. “We're asking Rob to tell us, after five more games which followed a very lengthy review of the World Cup, where we are. Are things identified in the World Cup review as needing attention being addressed? If he says that progress has been made, that we're on the right track, that's not a problem for us.

“I don't want anyone going into the meeting with preconceptions, but it's in Brian's interests and England's interests to have it resolved quickly. If there is a way in which Martin can be involved constructively, how fantastic would that be, but it's where he fits into the jigsaw, that's the key.”

England coaches, Thomas said, should not always be under the spotlight, as their footballing counterparts are, where a few defeats presage a change of employment. At the same time there has been a lack of confidence in Ashton since he became head coach 15 months ago that has served to undermine his belief that a new philosophy is inspiring the England camp and that the RBS Six Nations Championship campaign has been a step forward.

The management board will want to hear from Andrew to find out what faith he has in the existing regime, the degree of Johnson's availability and what access there may be to alternative candidates. Jake White, South Africa's World Cup-winning coach last October, has signalled his availability, but there remains a belief that Shaun Edwards, the London Wasps head coach, could - or should - be seduced back from Wales, for whom he is the defence coach, if he is not held by any written contract.

“Martin Johnson is a unique force in English rugby,” Mark McCafferty, the chief executive of Premier Rugby Ltd (PRL), said when asked whether employment by the RFU would impinge on Johnson's agreement to be one of PRL's representatives on the new professional game board, which will meet for the first time on July 2 and is due for a dry run on April 10. But Johnson is also aware that he cannot be regarded as a universal panacea for every English ill.