Australia's Super Rugby clubs will have to operate in the dark for potentially months to come after an ARU board meeting failed to settle the question of how many teams the code could accommodate.
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ARU chairman Cameron Clyne admitted the uncertainty surrounding the game's future footprint was not ideal but said the nature of the joint-venture agreement governing Super Rugby left the ARU with little other choice.
"No one likes uncertainty, you're absolutely right," Clyne said.
"It's not necessarily a helpful scenario but unfortunately when you are in a joint-venture situation, you have to respect the nature of the joint venture and you can't really conduct scenario planning and option analysis in the open.
"I understand there's a degree of opaqueness around that, and that's why I think we'd be saying the sooner we can bring that to conclusion then that is preferable.
"We've agreed on what we think our preferences are and what's best for Australian rugby and we'll just wait until we've had a chance to talk to our SANZAAR partners about those options."
The ARU board has nominated "multiple" formats - understood to be based around Australia cutting one of its five teams or retaining all of them - and will take them to the next SANZAAR executive committee meeting on March 9.
Clyne hinted that either option could work for Australia as long as SANZAAR as a group of four unions got the competition structure right from 2018 onwards.
"If you've got a format of competition that is highly engaging to fans, attracts sponsors, brings revenue, you can have any number of teams," he said.
"It's not just a question of teams, it's what is the future format of the competition and does that actually drive more revenue, both from a broadcast and sponsor point of view, and from people through the gate in terms of watching games."
Any hopes of a final decision coming then, however, have also dimmed, after it emerged a trumpeted strategic review of the competition will not be finalised until May or June. Any change to the competition will need to attract a unanimous vote among the eight members of the committee.
"Joint ventures are always complex, when you've got four people in the marriage ... but if there is viability in making change in 2018 you need to make those decisions sooner rather than later," Clyne said.
