Cunningham's strong case for defence

Emmet Malone hears the skipper explain how Brian Kerr has beenbuilding his Irish team from the back

It is almost a year now since Ireland's normally reliable defence took something of a career break against the Swiss and Russians and Mick McCarthy's decision not to replace them with the likes of John O'Shea or Andy O'Brien was used by his critics as one of the chief arguments for his departure from the manager's job.

After a good year and four competitive wins, Kenny Cunningham and Gary Breen remain the regular centre-back pairing, however, and while Brian Kerr may make changes to his line-up for this evening's friendly against Australia it seems almost certain that when the Russians come to town for next month's vital European qualifying game, he will rely on the partnership favoured for so long by his predecessor.

The new manager had looked set to shake things up in his very first game in charge but injuries seemed to deflect him from his original intention and he has since paid tribute more than once to Breen and Cunningham, whose performances in this year's qualifiers have done much to help revive Irish hopes of making it to Portugal next summer.

The Russians will, of course, provide a sterner test for the pair than either the Albanians or Georgians managed but Cunningham reckons the Australians will provide good preparation for what is to come.

"They have some fantastic players," says the Irish skipper, "everybody was blown away by their performance against the English and you'd have to say it wasn't a fluke.

"This is a team that could embarrass us at Lansdowne Road, we all know that. We'll have to keep our standards up for the entire 90 minutes but, hopefully, if we can do that then we can continue the run of results that we've had lately."

Cunningham admits the defensive displays at the end of last season were at the heart of Ireland's difficulties in their opening qualifiers, although, he says, the problems, "weren't just an issue for the back four.

"In international football you can't afford to give chances away because you get punished, which is what happened us in those games because we defended badly throughout the whole team. I think we've put that behind us since, though, and had a few good games together.

"If we can keep it tight at the back in these games then we firmly believe we have the quality of players up front to score the goals we need. So these are exciting times to be involved with the team because if things go well in the next few games then everything is really going to open up for us."

First, though, there is matter of tonight's game against a side whose progress over the past few years has been remarkable, not least because they continue to be hindered by the poor quality of almost all their rivals in the Oceania qualifying stages, and the sudden step up they have tended to face in the play-offs for World Cup qualification.

Those, however, are only some of the difficulties facing Australian managers attempting to prepare players whose employers dread any mention of international duty.

Several players have, in the past, been subjected to considerable pressure by their European clubs to abandon international careers that periodically involve them having to travel to the other side of the world in order to play competitive games.

The attitude of Leeds exemplifies what the Australian FA, and current coach Frank Farina, have been up against, with players at the club over the past few years having it made clear to them how they should resolve the old club versus country dilemma and a young player, Jamie McMaster, being told he could only move to Elland Road if he opted to play for England rather than his homeland - which he did.

The Australians have gone some way towards dealing with the situation by all but abandoning non-essential games back home. The team hasn't played on Australian soil since the World Cup play-offs in late 2001 and the policy of staging two matches there each year appears to be primarily aspirational.

Instead, the Australian FA has taken to playing friendlies close to where their players are based with the result that tonight's game in Ireland follows recent meetings with Scotland and England.

Next month they will play Jamaica, in Reading, and there has even been talk of establishing a more permanent base in London, with the idea of bidding to purchase Loftus Road even being floated.

"In the past, the issue of where and when we play games has definitely been an issue but we've tried to adopt new policies that facilitate everyone and having more games enables the team to establish some momentum as a unit," says Farina, "so we seem to be moving in the right direction."

The Irish under-21s, meanwhile, take on Poland in a friendly game due to kick-off at 5.30 (Irish time) this afternoon in Gdansk. Clifford Byrne of Scunthorpe will captain the side, with Patrick Kohlmann of Borussia Dortmund and Leeds United's Paul Keegan expected to make their debuts at this level.

And manager Don Givens is looking for the new generation of players to show they can make the step up ahead of forthcoming competitive games against Russia and Switzerland.

"A lot of them have been on the margins for a while and this game will give those players the opportunity to show what they can do," he said . "The hope is we'll get a good team performance and that everybody will take something away from the experience."