Warren Gatland's second coming will be in danger of an early going should Wales flop at the World Cup.
Failure to reach the quarter-finals would prompt the WRU to invoke a contractual clause allowing them to terminate their agreement without incurring another hefty outlay as compensation.
Wayne Pivac's dismissal along with two of his specialist coaches is understood to have cost the Union circa £500,000.
“The arrangement is in the interests of both parties,'' a source said. “In the event of a poor World Cup, Warren may not want to stay and the WRU may decide they want someone else. A quarter-final place will be the least the Union expect.''
Gatland, preparing for a fourth World Cup, has an impressive track record over the previous three. France will be the most challenging of all, hence the WRU taking the precaution of a condition which offers no guarantees beyond Wales' last match on the global stage in nine months' time.
Fail at the World Cup and you're out, Gatland warned
The long-term plan of Gatland remaining at the helm for a fifth RWC, in the US in 2027, will be determined, for better or worse, not by the Six Nations but Wales' fate over their RWC pool matches against Fiji, Portugal, Australia and Georgia.
Despite their team slumping to ninth in the official world rankings, the WRU will see qualification for the last eight as the minimum goal in France. Failure to survive the pool stage would leave Gatland facing the same fate as Gareth Jenkins in 2007 when France last hosted the event.
With that goal in mind, the New Zealander has already changed half of Pivac's coaches, appointing ex-England fly-half Alex King and defence expert Mike Forshaw from Sale to replace Stephen Jones and Gethin Jenkins.
Gatland spent the weekend finalising his Six Nations squad to be named on Tuesday. He will have been particularly interested in Exeter's pair of Welsh tyros, flanker Chris Tshuinza, 21 last week, and second row Dafydd Jenkins, 20 last month.
Both won starting places for a third successive Champions' Cup tie in Pretoria last night. Jenkins, capped against Australia in November as a teenager, will surely be joined by the uncapped Osprey Rhys Davies in urgent response to an alarming shortage of Test-class Welsh locks.
Gatland picked his last Wales line-up more than three years ago, for the third-place decider against the All Blacks in Japan: Amos; Lane, J Davies, Watkin, Adams; Patchell, Williams; Smith, Owens, Lewis; Beard, AW Jones; Tipuric, J Davies, Moriarty. Reps: Dee, Carre, W Jones, Ball, Shingler, G Davies, Biggar, Parkes.
Very few of those can be sure of being out in the middle at the Principality Stadium for the start of the Six Nations against Ireland on February 4, that goes for Alun Wyn Jones as much as anyone else.
