Other objectives in the next five seasons include two or more Six Nations titles, two or more European titles for the four Irish provinces and two or more PRO14 titles. Olympic qualification for Japan 2020 is a strategic object for both Ireland’s men and women.

The women’s team has also been set a target of one Six Nations title before 2023 while qualification and then a top-six finish is the requirement for the World Cup in 2021.

Those are just two of the targets laid out in the IRFU’s Women In Rugby Action Plan for the same period, a plan instigated by an independent review group established last November in the wake of a disappointing performance by the Women’s XV team at last summer’s World Cup on home soil.

Objectives for the men’s national team appear to be intrinsically linked to the future of its head coach but with Schmidt’s contract set to run out in a little more than 12 months after the 2019 World Cup in Japan, Ireland’s governing body has insisted that success is not dependent on the man who delivered a Grand Slam and an all-time high world ranking of number two last season, as well as two other Six Nations titles and the historic first Test victory over his native New Zealand.

“A lot of the success is down to Joe, he’s driven a lot of really good things in the Irish game and not just with the national team,” IRFU Performance Director David Nucifora said.

“Part of his strength is that he’s built a team that can carry those things on, that can carry them forward. Any good programme has to be sustainable.

A lot of the work that we do is about that, about being sustainable.

“Regardless of whether Joe chooses to stay or go, he’d be the first to tell you that he’s confident it is sustainable. We’ve built something that is sustainable and we will be continuing to focus on that.”

The ideal scenario for the IRFU is that Schmidt, 53, stays in post beyond Japan 2019 and signs a new contract to stay at the helm and chief executive Philip Browne said he hoped to have a clear idea of the head coach’s plans after next month’s Guinness Series of autumn internationals.

“Joe has said he will have a better idea of where he is at after the November internationals so I would imagine by the end of the year we would be in a position to know what his plans are and then gives us the opportunity to get all of our plans (in place),” Browne said.

Schmidt became Ireland head coach in the summer of 2013 having led Leinster to two Heineken Cups and a European Challenge Cup in the previous three seasons. His most recent contract extension was signed in 2016 after he had led Ireland to a first victory over the Springboks on South African soil. Asked whether the IRFU would make him an offer he could not refuse, Browne replied: “I thought we did that the last time!

“He’s done a fantastic job and it’s not just about Joe, it’s about the people he has gathered around him, as a collective — both in terms of the team management and their interaction with the high-performance department and their interaction with the provinces, and the quality of coaching and personnel that are now in the provinces.

It is a collective and at times people, certainly outside of Irish rugby, don’t understand that and Joe is an important part of that collective and has done a fantastic job. At the end of the day, David (Nucifora) is having conversations with Joe until he makes up his mind and we will be thinking about it once the November internationals are done.

Whether Browne feels those goals set out in the Strategic Plan are attainable regardless of whether Schmidt stays on, he replied: “My father in his wisdom used to say graveyards are full of people who thought they were indispensable. The reality is the plan can’t be built around one person, it has to be built around systems, processes and structures and that is effectively what David has laid out.”

Some may question the IRFU’s target of reaching a World Cup semi-final for the first time as lacking ambition given Ireland’s current ranking of second in the World Rugby rankings, yet Browne and Nucifora insisted a place in the last four was a minimum requirement.

“The notion that we put it up on a piece of paper and we get to the semi-final and say ‘great, job done, let’s go off and have a party’, that’s kind of naïve,” the IRFU chief executive said, while Performance Director Nucifora added: “I think with any plan you put together, if you’re not ambitious, then don’t come to work. Not in this business anyway.

“We’ve got to be ambitious; they’re our minimum benchmarks that we want to achieve, but right at the start I said ‘we want to win everything’ and we do.

“Every time we roll out, it’s about being the best we can be and winning. So, we are going to aim to have those minimum benchmarks at World Cups for the men’s team but obviously we want to win them. We said that way back in 2014, we’re here to win things and that’s what we want to do. That’s what Joe, the staff and everyone is striving to achieve in Japan.”