Wales will this week rush through a new contract offer to Shaun Edwards, in an attempt to stop their defence coach falling into the hands of England.

Edwards, who was out of contract with Wales from the moment the team landed at Heathrow on Sunday evening and whose future as head coach with Wasps is uncertain, refused to confirm his situation, saying: "I don't want to negotiate in public." However, it is known that Roger Lewis, the Welsh Rugby Union chief executive, is desperate to keep the successful World Cup coaching team together for a further four years.

During the World Cup in which Wales reached the semi-finals and could have gone further but for a controversial red card against their captain Sam Warburton, Lewis said he intended to talk to Wasps before talking to Edwards. Now that may not be necessary, even though Edwards's Wasps contract has two years to run.

The Wasps owner, Steve Hayes, has put the club up for sale and Edwards's situation is unclear after the arrival of Dai Young from the Cardiff Blues as director of rugby and Paul Turner as his assistant. "My future is up in the air," said Edwards, before Wales left New Zealand. "I'll make a statement when it all comes out properly but the club is in financial difficulties and maybe it is time for me to go on to other challenges."

Before Martin Johnson took over as England manager he sounded out Edwards, only to be told that the Wasps man had shaken hands with Warren Gatland, the Wales coach, and that he intended to honour that agreement. England made a half-hearted attempt to get Edwards to run their second-string Saxons squad, an offer which was considered derisory and which did not include any contact with the England first team.

Now though, with Twickenham in a mess and England and Johnson the subject of five reviews after a dire World Cup, it is hard to see who may have the power to make an approach to a coach who has won four league titles, two Heineken Cups, one Anglo-Welsh Cup and one Challenge Cup in his 10 seasons coaching union. To complicate things, Cardiff Blues are said to be monitoring the Edwards situation and there have been offers for him to return to rugby league, one of them to coach the England side. Clearly he is unlikely to be unemployed for long with Lewis admitting as much several times during the World Cup.

"From a WRU perspective we are absolutely delighted with the coaching staff," Lewis said before Friday's play-off match against Australia. "It is a great team effort and they complement each other perfectly. It is an outstanding team.

"It's important to get the coaching situation resolved quickly to make the most of the full four-year cycle before the next World Cup. The good news is that that has been my way of thinking since day one, so we've got a five-year business plan in place, a five-year strategic plan in place.

"I signed a deal with the players through to July 2016 … We've also signed the deal with Warren and we need the rest of the structures in place. It will be the first job to be done, day one back. It is top of the list, top of the agenda … all these issues need to be resolved in that first week."

Assuming everything goes according to the Lewis plan it is hard to see England matching the Welsh pace for Edwards's signature. Johnson has not announced whether he wants to continue running England and the acting chief executive at the RFU, Martyn Thomas, has said Johnson's part in England's failure in New Zealand would be subject to searching review.