Rugby Australia has set the Wallabies the lofty goal of winning the Bledisloe Cup "every two years" and having both of its national 15s teams playing on the final weekend of the next Rugby World Cups, as optimism grows that Joe Schmidt may extend his stay beyond next year's British & Irish Lions Series.
RA on Tuesday released its national strategy for 2025-2029 "From Green to Gold" detailing some lofty ambitions from grassroots through to the professional level of the game, including Super Rugby, sevens and of course for both the Wallabies and Wallaroos.
For the Wallabies, who last week returned home with a 2-2 record from their spring tour, those aspirations include not only ending the All Blacks' long Bledisloe streak, but also then ensuring that the trophy is never lost for longer than a two-year period; to win next year's Lions series; and to improve the winning rate to 70%, a goal that also extends to the Wallaroos.
Given Australia has not held the Bledisloe since 2002, the trans-Tasman goal is clearly an imposing challenge, while the Wallabies' 2024 winning percentage of 46.15% reflects the progress that still needs to be made to meet the overall Test marker.
"I think you have to give the public and all of our stakeholders, our fans, some very lofty ambitions, otherwise what are we aiming for," RA chairman Daniel Herbert told reporters when asked why the governing body had set such high performance bars.
"We're aiming for excellence, high performance in particular; we're aiming for excellence in winning, we want to get back to winning ways. We've done a lot of initial work to create the platform to succeed, as long as the game remains united I think we can deliver on it."
While the national body remains hamstrung by an ongoing legal stoush with former Melbourne Rebels directors, despite Herbert stressing that the game had "moved on" from the ugly episode, RA has made strides in reconnecting with a disengaged community game and aligning more closely with the country's four Super franchises. This includes having both the Waratahs' and Brumbies' commercial and high performance arms under RA's control.
But the success of the game in Australia is innately paired with the success of the Wallabies, whom Schmidt has taken forward in his first year in charge.
The challenge now, however, is to convince the Kiwi to extend beyond the Lions series and continue the Wallabies' recent improvement, which included wins away from home against Argentina, England and Wales, and near misses against Ireland in Dublin and the All Blacks in Sydney.
"We've been working through with Joe, he's still overseas and coming back this week," RA chief executive Phil Waugh said. "So we expect to sit down with Joe [once he's back] and work through the plan post-Lions, as we've said.
"And I think a really important point that we continue to make is that we do what we say we are going to do, and Joe was always committed through to the end of the Lions. We've done a lot of heavy lifting [turning things around], there is a lot of progress in the Wallaby environment, he has surrounded himself with really good people, and now it's important to give players and staff certainty post the Lions, and we'll work through that over the next few weeks."
In an interview with News Corp last month, Waugh said the governing body was prepared to get creative to help convince Schmidt to stay - the Kiwi is keen to spend more time with his family - which may see the Wallabies coach granted extended periods of leave, or even spared lengthy tour commitments as a potential successor is introduced down the track.
While Waugh wouldn't be drawn on whether he thought Schmidt would stay on or whether he'd got a feel for the coach's plans during recent talks in the United Kingdom, there is a quiet confidence across the game that the 59-year-old will extend beyond July 2025.
Well placed sources have indicated to ESPN that the positivity within the Wallabies environment has had a significant impact on Schmidt and where the Kiwi was more likely to wind up his contract at its original 18-month expiry, he is now genuinely considering an extension.
"The focus in the north was about performance on the Saturday or the Sunday or whenever we were playing a Test match, so we weren't getting too far ahead of ourselves," Waugh said.
"In regards to 'creative', obviously there is a lot that goes into Joe's future with commitments outside of rugby as well as commitments to Rugby Australia, and I think it's actually around what's the right environment, it's not just about the head coach, it's about the environment that he creates and what talent they bring into the environment, and we'll sit down and go through all of those different options over the next couple of weeks."
Waugh also confirmed that RA had discussed contingency plans, with Reds coach Les Kiss and Wallabies great Stephen Larkham thought to be at the head of the pack should Schmidt decline an extension through to the 2027 World Cup.
"I think Joe was quite overt that he saw his responsibility as elevating Australian rugby but also providing a platform for an Australian to take over when he does finish up," Waugh said.
"If you look across the four Super Rugby clubs now, the four coaches across the system; Simon Cron's a very strong coach at the Force; Stephen Larkham at the Brumbies; Les Kiss in Queensland and Dan McKellar in NSW; we've got four very strong coaches in our system.
"So I think that we're well positioned, but it's not just about the Wallaby coach, it's about building capability across the system, which I think we've done in the last 12 months."
Elsewhere across its four-year strategy, RA has given Australian franchises the goal of winning two Super Rugby Pacific titles before 2029, and for the national sevens teams to both win medals at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
At the grassroots level RA hopes to grow registered participants in 15s ands sevens by 30%, grow female participation by 70%, and grow accredited coaches and match officials by 30%.