Mick McCarthy will put the emphasis on experience when he names his first team of the New Year for the European Championship warm-up game against Paraguay at Lansdowne Road on February 10th.
Determined to use the fixture as a dress rehearsal for the meeting with Macedonia on March 27th, he will resist the options offered by fringe players like Mark Kennedy, Curtis Fleming and Rory Delap.
All three may still find places in the squad but McCarthy has already resolved that in so far as is possible he will go with a formation that is likely to approximate to the one he will deploy at Skopje.
That will disappoint not just players with proven track records at senior level but those of last season's under-21 squad with ambitions of early promotion.
"There will of course be occasions when we will use friendly games to look at the gifted player coming through but essentially all the hard work in this area was done in 1996."
"I know what we have and the job now is to get on with our European programme and get the kind of result in Macedonia which will set us up for our remaining games.
"That we have the players to qualify for the European finals is not in doubt. The key is getting them all together on the days it matters most."
In terms of reserve strength the Ireland manager is now appreciably closer to the goal he set himself on taking office. His stated aim then was to build a squad which would offer realistic options in all positions and the point is well made in midfield.
Despite the considerable loss of Andy Townsend, the current central partnership of Roy Keane and Mark Kinsella stands comparison with the best in Group 8 in the European preliminaries.
And in Alan McLoughlin and Lee Carsley, he has two players who offer him the requisite balance and skill if, per chance, he ever arrives at the doomsday situation of having to replace both his first choice players in the same game.
Kinsella's remarkable rate of progression since arriving in the Premiership with Charlton Athletic has perhaps been McCarthy's biggest bonus. Those who have followed his career closely since his Home Farm days will say that is no more than the logical development of an outstanding talent.
Yet the transformation into one of the better midfield players in the Premiership and a significant asset in just five international appearances is by any standard impressive.
If it is premature as yet to suggest that Phil Babb has turned the corner in the attempt to get his international career back on track, McCarthy has found cause for encouragement in some of the player's more recent club performances.
It still leaves him some way adrift of the form which stamped him as an outstanding prospect at the start of his Ireland career but with Gary Breen struggling at Coventry, Babb has an obvious role to play in the remainder of the European campaign.
Up front, the manager would appear to have settled on Niall Quinn and Robbie Keane as his best permutation and, providing both players are available, this is almost certain to be reflected in his choice of team to face the Paraguayans.
Yet he still views the absence of Keith O'Neill as a lost talent which fully focused and freed of injury has much to offer Ireland. O'Neill is again on the treatment table and it remains to be seen how long it will take him on this occasion, to regain full fitness.
"What can we say about the player that hasn't been said a dozen times before," mused McCarthy. "Fully fit he can be a big asset to the team but he's had so many injuries that its now a bonus when he turns up to play. But I still haven't lost faith in his ability."
