Players keen to prove a point

Forest fires and burning bogs? Mick McCarthy is entitled to ask: "What the blazes next?" Assuming, though, that there are no more problems and the match against Russia goes ahead as planned it will signal the beginning of a new era for McCarthy and his team. Day one, or, as he put it himself yesterday, "We start from scratch."

Yes, the memories of a good World Cup are still fresh but you can't look back, that's over with, time to move on. Of course the absence of Roy Keane at the start of this qualifying campaign strengthens the belief that this is a new era for the team, but it's also inevitable that the "issue" will never leave us.

For so long as Keane, unquestionably our best player, is playing at club level, and to the standard he usually plays, the debate about his absence will hang over everything. If the team struggles at any stage the question will be asked: how would we have done if Roy was there? If it goes wrong today, against Russia, the players will know that the thought in most people's minds will be: if Roy was there it would have been different. There's no getting away from it.

That, of course, should spur the players on, make them doubly determined to succeed. Their team spirit has always been fantastically strong but I'm certain that it will be further strengthened by what has happened.

To my knowledge the players, to a man, were just relieved when Roy left - I don't think it's any coincidence that Damien Duff, for example, has blossomed since then. He's a player who needs an arm around his shoulder, plenty of encouragement, you don't scream and shout at him. When he gets that kind of encouragement he grows in confidence and produces the kind of form he showed at the World Cup and for Blackburn since then. I saw him against Liverpool the other week and he was simply outstanding.

For me Kenny Cunningham was the logical choice as captain, the right choice too. He's a very consistent player, will play in every game, he's a nice, calming influence and leads by example. He'll have been a popular choice, too, among the players.

For Cunningham's defensive partner, Gary Breen, it hasn't been the ideal start to the season, having spent most of it on the bench for West Ham. He won't have expected that after the World Cup he had, which was very, very good, but it's up to him to prove to Glenn Roeder that he's worth his place.

Kevin Kilbane, too, is having a bad time of it at club level, but I don't think that's a problem for Ireland - if anything it will be a relief and a release for him to join up with the squad, and he has a chance to send a message to his Sunderland manager, Peter Reid, with a good performance.

WHILE I wouldn't make any assumptions about taking three points from Georgia away from home - they have some decent players, so that could be a tricky game - and we can probably expect Switzerland to be tough enough opponents, you have to believe that Russia will be the main rivals in this group.

When I saw them in Dublin earlier in the year I thought they were poor but expected them to be a lot better at the World Cup - they weren't, they were even worse. In fact, they were probably the poorest Russian team I have ever seen. There's no doubt, either, a trip to Moscow isn't quite as daunting these days as it was up until a few years back, but they'll still be awkward opponents and we have to expect an improvement on their World Cup form.

I was encouraged, though, by their goalkeeper's comments about Ireland being a dirty team - that, to me, suggested that their mental state mightn't be quite right, that maybe they're looking for an excuse or two ahead of the game. We'll see.

It should prove to be the trickiest game of the campaign, though, whatever Russia's problems - and they will be missing a few important players today, including their captain Yegor Titov - but Ireland will go into it with plenty of confidence.

It's a settled, balanced team now, but with a few options (the most obvious being playing Duff on the left and playing Clinton Morrison up front with Robbie Keane), one that is confident enough to have a real go at every opponent, whoever they are.

Having said all that I'd happily take a draw today, it would be a good, positive start to the campaign. Win your home games, pick up draws on the road and you should be fine - a point today, then, will augur well for the rest of the campaign.

in an interview with Mary Hannigan