Warren Gatland has agreed a two-year extension as Ireland coach and confirmed that regardless of whether his contract is renewed again for the 2003 World Cup, he will be relinquishing his position, one way or the other, after the next World Cup.

Gatland met a six-strong delegation of the IRFU on Wednesday headed by the union president Billy Lavery and shook hands on a two-year deal which will take him up to the completion of the 2002 Six Nations. The union also reached agreement on Eddie O'Sullivan remaining as assistant coach. Gatland said yesterday: "I'm happy to be working with the Irish given the talent that is coming through, and on continuing to forge a good working relationship with Eddie O'Sullivan."

"Ideally," the Irish coach admitted, "I would have liked three years but in the end I was quite happy. Two years would give me four years in the job and after that hopefully another 18 months through to the next World Cup. No matter what happens I'll be finished then. I think that's a long enough period."

The IRFU president said: "We're obviously very pleased that the situation has developed over the last few months and we've had a very successful end to the year. The coaches deserved recognition of that factor by their reappointment."

Regarding the appointment of a new manager in succession to Donal Lenihan, Lavery said: "We haven't had an opportunity of dealing with that yet. That will be dealt with in the next week or so."

Harry Williams, already in the IRFU system as full-time Ulster coach and manager to the Irish A side, is a strong favourite to succeed Lenihan, with the successful former Shannon manager and current Munster manager Brian O'Brien also a strong contender.

The two-year deal at least adds some stability to Irish rugby and should make Gatland the longest serving Irish coach since Jimmy Davidson in the late 1980s.

It is believed that Gatland's contract has been increased to £100,000 a year from the current £70,000 to £80,000.