With Martin Johnson understood to be completing the details of his new role within the RFU's national team management, as exclusively revealed in The Times yesterday, the emphasis this weekend returns to Brian Ashton. Given that the England head coach has already held in-depth discussions with the RFU over the implementation of the new agreement on player release between the union and the Guinness Premiership clubs, Ashton could be excused for wondering what twilight world he now occupies.

Only last month, Ashton and the other coaches involved with England's representative teams, a dozen or so people, sat down with Rob Andrew, the RFU's director of elite rugby, at Twickenham to consider the implications of the eight-year agreement brokered by Andrew with the clubs that comes into effect on July 1. Coming off the back of the clear-cut win over Ireland, Ashton had every reason to suppose that he would be preparing an England team to play the Barbarians at Twickenham on June 1 before departing for the tour to New Zealand.

He was also due to meet Andrew on April 14 for the completion of the regular performance review. If all goes according to plan, however, Johnson's situation as England team manager will be clarified by then and something of an interregnum will be in place, in which Johnson will not have taken up his new duties, but will be expected to do so in two months' time.

Where that will leave Ashton is anyone's guess. Over the past few days he has been moving house, a traumatic enough experience for most people, although it may just have taken his mind off the shifting sands on which his professional career seems to stand.

It seems quite possible that, when Ashton and Andrew next meet, the coach will be told that the terms of reference for his job have changed. On the other hand, the RFU needs a team management in place to undertake the two internationals against the All Blacks, never the most accommodating of opponents, and can hardly afford to throw everything up in the air between now and the squad's departure in early June.

If Ashton knows where he stands in the hierarchy, there is no reason why he and Johnson should not be able to work together; Johnson knows the value that Ashton brings as a creative coach and he would also appreciate the relationship that Ashton has with a new group of players, many of whom have worked with the coach since their days in the national academy and have an instinctive sympathy with his playing philosophy.

Someone has to select a squad for New Zealand and, as things stand, that responsibility rests squarely with Ashton. It is not in his best commercial interests to take umbrage and throw his contract back at the RFU, but it is impossible to think that the present coaching panel would be asked to take the team to New Zealand without having some idea of what fate awaits them when they return home.