Ireland's highly regarded rugby coach Joe Schmidt is likely to wait till the end of the year before deciding whether to stay in the job beyond the 2019 World Cup.
He has lifted Ireland to their best ever world ranking of No.2, heading into Saturday's deciding Test against the Wallabies.
Schmidt is in no hurry to make a decision on his future and has given a lot of credit for Ireland's success to his support staff.
"By the end of this year I would say there will be some fair direction there because for the entire following year I'm still in situ, unless I get sacked," Schmidt said.
"You can be flavour of the month one week, and things can turn around very quickly, so I take nothing for granted.
"I've been lucky enough to do the job as long as I have and really enjoyed the people I work with.
"I think one of the misconceptions is that a head coach has a major influence.
"I'd like to think I have a degree of influence, but there's a great coaching team, that includes Jason Cowman, the strength and conditioning coach (and) the medical team."
The wishes of his family will also have a bearing on his decision, which won't come until a period of rest and reflection following Ireland's November Tests against Argentina, New Zealand and the United States.
"One of the few times of the year our family manage to get together is Christmas and we'll make our decision after that I'd say," Schmidt said.
"I want my family to be happy, that's got to be a priority for anyone in a job.
"Because I'm kept pretty happy pretty easily being able to work with the quality of people that I work with, so from that perspective it's incredibly positive."
Schmidt admitted he couldn't help occasionally thinking about the decision.
"'It's one of those things, anytime I have thought about it, I've stopped myself thinking about it,'' he said.
"I've said 'look, just get on with the job at hand and when you get to the end of November give yourself a couple of weeks, not to linger too much over, but just to make a decision.
"There will be times when I'll lapse and think about it briefly and I think that's important as well, just so that I can try to be definitive when the time comes."
The Wallabies take on Ireland in the third June Test, kicking off at 8:05pm AEST, LIVE on FOX SPORTS, Channel Ten and via RUGBY.com.au RADIO.
