Rob Andrew has backed Martin Johnson as the man to carry England to success © Getty Images

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Players/Officials: Rob Andrew | Martin Johnson

Teams: England

England's Elite Rugby Director Rob Andrew has warned that England's rebuilding under Martin Johnson will be a "long term process".

Following a difficult opening series in charge, with heavy defeats suffered against the southern hemisphere powers, Johnson has been backed to succeed by Andrew.

"Johnno has a three-year fixed-term contract to the 2011 World Cup. That was a change to the contract structure of the RFU because we know what is required over the next three years," he said. "This is a three year project and the process has just started. Everyone knows the side needs rebuilding after the 2007 World Cup.

"When you're looking at long-term succession planning and building successful teams you look at something like the Manchester United and Arsenal model."

One of the most alarming problems for Johnson and Andrew is the lack of depth in the current international setup, with new caps blooded in the autumn coming off second best to sides that had been rebuilding gradually for several seasons.

Despite the northern hemisphere's drain on New Zealand's resources, they were able to field a side containing 647 international caps against England, an alarming statistic when contrasted to the 275 caps amassed by England's players.

"We are trying to build a structure behind Martin to make sure we don't fall into this trough again, where we don't have players coming through," said Andrew. "We do have a gap we need to fill and we need the Premiership to help us achieve that. The young players need to play. Our Under-20s were world level last year and we need them to move on. We need the Premiership to help us develop a much stronger A-League."

Johnson's task is not over for the autumn, as he and his coaching staff of Brian Smith (attack), Mike Ford (defence), John Wells (forwards) and Graham Rowntree (scrum) will be meeting to mull over the autumn results and begin their preparations for next year's Six Nations.

Johnson has backed his coaching staff despite the heavy defeats suffered and believes that his young England squad will be better for their autumn experience and will mount a far sterner challenge come Six Nations time.

"A lot of the coaches have taken individual blame but they have been fantastic. We know what the issues are and what needs to be addressed and we will be working hard to improve in all areas," he said. "I didn't expect to lose by the margins we did. We felt we could be competitive. Frankly we have to improve. The very fact of playing the games will help these guys and their understanding of the game and what it takes at Test match level.

"Are they good enough to go out and compete with all the teams in the Six Nations? Yes they are."

Andrew also confirmed that kicking coach Dave Alred will continue to help with Danny Cipriani's kicking whist he is with England despite Jon Callard being England's kicking coach.