IRFU performance director David Nucifora is poised to sign a new short-term deal - and then prepare the ground for his successor.
Nucifora, the Australian who took on the vital role of shaping the pro game in Ireland in 2014, is contracted to the end of France 2023.
"We're talking about extending that for a little bit further," said the 60-year-old. "That would probably involve looking at some type of transition in that period.
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“By the middle of 2024 I'll have been here 10 years, and I think that's a pretty good stretch.
"I think what we start to do is look at the future and I'm not saying that I'll definitely depart then, but we'll start thinking about who takes this role after me. You've got to keep evolving.”
In a media briefing at the Aviva Stadium today, Nucifora defended the controversial recent Emerging Ireland tour that left some of the provinces unhappy to lose a number of young players for three games in South Africa.
But the performance director insisted the tour was a real success in terms of the platform if gave the players.
"We have to know we have the best players (for Ireland), not think we know," he said. "We are intent on finding out who our top 50 players are, not just our top 30.
"You need to take people out of their comfort zone and what was done in two weeks blew me away in terms of what was done - and it has re-arranged the pecking order in the minds of the coaches. We have a year to work on that."
However Nucifora is concerned that promising young players across the provinces will not get the game time they need due to the tightened up URC season that consists of 18 regular games.
“Our next task for the future is to work out how we house all the good players that have been created in the model,” he said. "We have to think differently.
"Unless we want to sit back and lose our players elsewhere because other countries can come and pick off our best young players, we have to give them opportunity to play.
"So whether that is Emerging Ireland, or Ireland ‘A’, or whether it is something else it has to be looked at because, beyond that Under-20 group and with that professional contracted group and with the way that the URC is at the moment, what it allows and doesn’t allow us to do, we have to be creative.
"I was always in favour of the South African teams joining the URC.
"It’s early days but we are already seeing what they are bringing to the competitive landscape. I think that’s fantastic. I am not worried at all about the URC as a competition and what it brings us at that point and how our fit into the European competition exists at the moment.
"We have quality there, it is the quantity of games for the spread of our players.
"If you are creating a lot of good players which out model is then we have to find ways to allow them to play. Play in a meaningful way that they as players feel that they have a chance to advance, where that be provincial or to get to international rugby. They have got find a way to play.
“URC squads carry on average 45 players in the provinces and that is tough for our coaches to work that out and keep everyone happy when the competition model is as it is now. We are not playing rugby in those international windows, so we have to find a way.”
Meanwhile, Nucifora revealed that 29 of the 43 professional contracts offered to Sevens and 15s Ireland internationals have been taken up - with eight players rejecting deals, four based in Ireland and four overseas.
“They have a contractual obligation but also they also made a decision that they would stay and play their rugby there this year,” said Nucifora.
“The other four players (in Ireland) are players that are not surprising to us, just with the age bracket of players.
"We have produced a model that has come on in a very short period of time. Those other women have got jobs, they are committed to their careers which is understandable.
“We fully understand that you have financial obligations that don’t permit you to be able to take up those contracts. We could have just not offered contracts to the ones that we thought wouldn’t take it up, but we have given people a choice, an option.
Nucifora confirmed that the contracts are worth between €15,000 and €30,000 per season with "significant" bonuses on offer for match and tournament appearances, and for wins.
He said that compared favourably with the £3,000 to £10,000 offered for contracts in England.
The players on the new pro contracts will all work out of the IRFU's high performance centre in Abbotstown.
There will also be a women's Celtic Cup played off in January and February in the build up to the Six Nations.
One Irish team will compete against a Scottish and a Welsh side in the first season, with the numbers to be doubled the following season and, down the line, hopefully for four Irish clubs to participate.
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