Houghton given the task of guiding team to play-offs

The Republic of Ireland's deepening reserves of talent, a source of some gratification in recent years, are likely to be put on show in today's World Cup game against Romania at Lansdowne Road. With 11 players on yellow cards and inclusion in the draw for the play-offs in Zurich on Monday, by now almost assured, it's an open secret that Mick McCarthy will eschew anything approximating to risk in his choice of a team this morning.

McCarthy says his players will be motivated by the prospect of becoming the first team to beat Romania since the qualifying series started in August last year.

Victory would be sweet but one gets the impression that the Ireland management team is not prepared to pay an excessively high price for that achievement. Better to arrive in the play-offs they feel, with a reasonably strong squad than one seriously undermined by suspensions carried over from today.

Coincidentally, the highly competitive Romanians also go into today's match with 12 yellow cards but they can still afford to play them on the reasonable assumption that even if they're booked again, the suspension will be repealed under the amnesty which FIFA traditionally implements for the start of the World Cup finals.

FIFA of course, have already rejected overtures for a similar arrangement for the four play-off ties for second placed teams and to that extent, stand accused of creating an uneven playing pitch today.

Curbing exuberance is not something which comes easy to Irish players, particularly at Lansdowne Road. But in this instance, I suspect they will get no credits from their manager if raw passion lures them into the indiscreet tackle.

To that extent, it's an improbable climax to a group which was generally regarded as one of the weakest in the European qualifying competition but in one aspect at least, its authenticity is beyond reproach. Romania, the most technically proficient team, have arrived inexorably at the top of the table and the manner of that arrival, brooks no argument.

They are full of confidence and have in the Galatasaray trio, Gheorghe Hagi, Gheorghe Popescu and Adrian Ilie and Chelsea's Dan Petrescu, the nucleus of a side which is capable of sustained progress in France next summer.

Hagi, at 32, is perhaps, no longer the shimmering talent which showed even in the most torrid moments of an absorbing drama when the countries met in Genoa in the 1990 World Cup finals. But operating around the fringes, he can still be decisive unless he is diligently watched.

Gary Kelly, among others, ensured that he never got that opportunity in Bucharest last April but sadly, Kelly is one of those yellow carded players who are likely to be left out of the team now.

McCarthy was careful as ever in his wording, when asked to speculate on the likely formation of his side but on point at least, he was specific. Ray Houghton, one of the great indestructibles, will captain the team for the first time in 71 international appearances.

Tony Cascarino will be disappointed that after some promising early signs he has been overlooked for the job but if the responsibility had to go elsewhere, then it was appropriate that it should end up with the man who coaches Reading in the English First Division.

After hints of redundancy in the closing months of Jack Charlton's reign, Houghton's international career has been successfully reprieved by McCarthy, never more so than in Bucharest in April when he played as impishly as at any stage of his long career.

Now, as then, his brief will be to operate in the space directly behind the front runners but the hope is that after some incredible misses on his last home appearance against Lithuania, he can now rediscover the vision and self belief which yielded those precious goals against England in 1988 and Italy in New Jersey six years later.

Another player who may have reason to invoke the past is Liverpool's Phil Babb. Although McCarthy has indicated that at least a couple of those with yellow cards will play today, it is scarcely likely that he will expose both Kenny Cunningham and Ian Harte to the risk of suspension for the play-offs.

In that situation, Babb looks likely to start in central defence for what would be his first full Ireland appearance in almost a year. Shorn of the assistance of Paul McGrath, Babb has never looked quite the same international player since McGrath was "retired" by the Ireland manager but some recent performances with Liverpool, suggest that the graph of his career may at last be climbing again.

Cascarino, reborn as a first team player in the absence of Niall Quinn, this year, is certain to start but it remains to be seen how McCarthy evaluates the claims of other front line players like Tommy Coyne and David Kelly.

Of the new newcomers in the squad, there will be a lot of vigilant eyes for Stephen Carr, the Tottenham player, who in the absence of Dennis Irwin, could throw down a big challenge to Jeff Kenna for the number two shirt. Experience suggests Kenna but after a long apprenticeship in the under-21 team and regular first team status at Tottenham for much of that time, Carr is not without hope of promotion.

Another whose claims will merit close scrutiny is Lee Carsley of Derby County. McCarthy makes no attempt to disguise his apprehension in the wake of the loss of Roy Keane and Andy Townsend who have formed the great powerbase of World Cup teams in recent years. Carsley's abrasive qualities for Derby suggest that he could make a useful contribution in the holding role in midfield.

Michael Evans, the latest English born player to be recruited in the hope of broadening McCarthy's options in attack, has some good club performances to his credit but given his sketchy background, he is unlikely to get into the starting line up.

If Anghel Iordanescu, the Romanian coach is to be believed in his assertion that his carded players will be under orders to play it strictly by the book, there is some danger of this going down in history as the day of the Big Standoff. Let's hope that there is at least some cheer, at the end of it!