Wales assistant coaches Rob Howley and Robin McBryde have signed new deals with the Welsh Rugby Union that will incorporate the 2019 World Cup in Japan.
The pair will also benefit from the return of the second string Wales A team next season.
Attack coach Howley and forwards specialist McBryde have followed defence coach Shaun Edwards – he was re-contracted last December – in remaining part of Wales boss Warren Gatland’s support staff, the WRU announced.
Gatland and his current coaching team, along with skills specialist and WRU employee Neil Jenkins, have masterminded World Cup semi-final and quarter-final appearances during the last two tournaments – together with three Six Nations titles and two Grand Slams – since being forged during the 2007-08 season.
“We sat down with Warren post-Rugby World Cup (2015) and conducted a review of the campaign and the team and looked ahead to the next four-year cycle and the 2019 tournament in Japan,” WRU chief executive Martyn Phillips said.
“We concluded that this is a tight, ambitious coaching team, and one we believe will make us more competitive in 2019.
“We looked at the coaches as a team, and this is a team that works well together. It has trust.
“We have put together a four-year rugby strategy which is in its second year, and having continuity and stability at the helm is part of ensuring that strategy is delivered upon.”
Former Wales captain and scrum-half Howley joined the international coaching set-up from Cardiff Blues eight years ago, while ex-Wales hooker McBryde began a Wales coaching role in 2006.
Howley said: “We have a fantastic group of players in Wales, not just those on tour with us in New Zealand at the moment, but at home with the Under-20s and coming through in the regions, and I am really looking forward to building towards Japan.
“We have a clear focus and strategy in place, and we will continue to work hard to give the players the very best opportunity to achieve their full potential.”
And McBryde added: “Our current focus is of course, as always, on the next game, but we have a long-term objective and strategy, too.
“I think we all feel we have some unfinished business at the Rugby World Cup, and as Martyn Phillips has identified, a successful trip to Japan is the key over-reaching target for us all.”
The Wales A team will be reintroduced for the first time since it was mothballed in 2002 – although it is likely to play only one or two fixtures.
Phillips added: “We will reconstitute the Wales A team for next season and believe getting these fixtures up and running can help both ourselves and the regions by exposing the next cadre of players to a different, higher level of competition.
“If we can identify at Under 20 level and upwards those players who can handle the intensity, and help to improve those who can’t just yet, we can actually move forward quite rapidly.”
Wales conclude their three-Test tour of New Zealand by facing the All Blacks in Dunedin on Saturday, while the autumn schedule later this year features Cardiff appointments with Australia, Argentina, Japan and South Africa.
