In happier circumstances, Brian Ashton would have been eagerly awaiting this evening's two critical Guinness Premiership matches in Bath and High Wycombe, looking for form lines as he finalises the England squad that will travel to New Zealand in June.

As it is, a meeting tomorrow morning of the RFU's management board could decide whether Ashton has a future as national head coach.

Rob Andrew, the RFU's director of elite rugby, will place before the board his recommendations for the post of team manager and, as important in the short term, his belief of what the consequences could be. If Martin Johnson, England's World Cup-winning captain of 2003, is to fill this role, it then becomes a question of when, and what Ashton's response will be.

Had the original timetable for this season been adhered to, Ashton would have spent yesterday going through his final post-Six Nations assessment with Andrew but the events of the past month have turned upside down the hierarchy at the top of the national team management. If Ashton has friends on the management board, then he needs them now, but that particular body is short of individuals with direct experience of the elite side of the game.

Meanwhile, Guinness Premiership life goes on with Gloucester and Harlequins - first and second in the table respectively - pausing tonight to watch the mayhem taking place below. Three (Bath) plays five (Leicester) and six (London Wasps) plays four (Sale Sharks) in a season when few would place any money on the identity of the four qualifiers for the play-offs next month.

So much could hinge around the displays of the respective fly halves. At Bath Butch James plays his first game for three months against the most inexperienced of the quartet on show, Ian Humphreys, of Leicester.

At High Wycombe, where Wasps rate the old pop-chart description of “fastest climber”, Danny Cipriani comes up against Charlie Hodgson, the Sale No10 who almost qualifies as England's forgotten man. Of the four clubs, three have to manage three matches in eight days, of which two are away. Sale have made a mini-tour - they remained down south after last Friday's win over Bristol - before turning up at Adams Park.

Earlier this season, Wasps were as low as tenth but they are rocketing into play-offs contention whereas Leicester are struggling desperately for form. They must bounce back from a dispiriting display against the Ospreys in the EDF Energy Cup final on Saturday and the only player asked to step up again from that starting XV is Ben Kay. But if what is, effectively, Leicester's second team can come away from the Recreation Ground with a win it will be a remarkable turnaround in fortunes.

Bath are running hot, their injury list is low and the return of James, South Africa's World Cup winner, after dislocating his right shoulder against Saracens in January will lift them higher. “Guys coming back after injury are fresh mentally, they want to play, it re-energises the whole group,” Steve Meehan, the Bath head coach, said. “But it's not the time of year to start rotating the group, let's make sure the combinations are right.”

Even so, Meehan keeps Olly Barkley, one of the form players of the season, among the replacements while Leicester introduce Ollie Dodge, son of the former England captain, Paul, to their wing after a season spent mostly with Bedford. Lawrence Dallaglio, another former England captain, is not even as close as the bench: Wasps rest him for this game and change completely the pack that did so well against Worcester Warriors last weekend against a Sale side missing the injured Sébastien Chabal. Win, and Wasps will burst menacingly into the top four.