Another day, another fudge at the English Rugby Union. What passes for leadership at Twickenham is simply pitiful.

The great ‘Will he, won’t he’ saga involving coach Brian Ashton and his future, if he has one with England, was due to be discussed and decided last Wednesday.

The meeting was so important, we were told, that Elite Rugby chief Rob Andrew had to rush home from holiday in Greece to deliver his long awaited report.

Judging by the long list of juicy leaks in the previous week, Andrew was supposed to recommend the appointment of Martin Johnson as English rugby’s latest overall supremo.

They have a chief executive, Francis Baron, they have Andrew and they have a chief coach but apparently they now need an overall supremo.

But Wednesday came and went with the impact of a damp squib: nothing much happened. Ashton will remain in situ and take the team to New Zealand in late May. And after that?

Well, there will be more investigation by Andrew of the options, more talk (and doubtless leaks), more prevarication, more obfuscation.

But is the truth that the RFU really wanted Martin Johnson on board now, but couldn’t persuade him to get involved in time for the summer tour because his wife is expecting their second child?

Did that mean, therefore, buying some time and allowing Ashton to carry on until the late summer when, presumably, England will have had a couple more floggings by the All Blacks and Johnson might then be available and able to show Ashton the door, on the basis of two defeats in New Zealand.

If anything of the sort were to ensue in the future it would represent despicable treatment of Ashton, a decent human being who finds himself caught up in a job from hell. But then, working for the RFU has always been like that, hasn’t it?

English rugby is a shambles because it hasn’t got the right people at the top. I understand Johnson is being courted under the title ‘team manager’. But as one English Premiership club official said: “What on earth does that mean? Our team manager books the hotels and makes sure everything is ready for training. I can’t see Martin Johnson coming back and doing that.”

Of course he wouldn’t.

But isn’t it also appropriate to do the unthinkable and question even Johnson’s credentials for a role in senior rugby management?

He was a fantastic player and a charismatic captain. But has he ever coached at senior level?

Has he ever been involved in rugby management at senior level?

Is he qualified to assess and make a definite judgement on whether a man of Brian Ashton’s experience stays or goes?

The answer in all three cases is ‘no’ and the whole thing seems nonsensical to me.

But then, that’s the way they do things at Twickenham. They allowed Shaun Edwards to slip through their fingers and go off to Wales. And they missed Warren Gatland, the man who could have taken England, not Wales, to a Grand Slam this season.

You sense that, until the whole hopeless lot of so-called top management are swept from office at Twickenham and a new start is made, the only thing that will really change is a few job titles.