EAMON DUNPHY — LIKE many of us — was far from impressed by the performance of our national team against Belgium this afternoon.
Ireland were soundly beaten 3-0 with Ciaran Clark again at fault as he steamed in on Eden Hazard ahead of the second goal while the midfield was anonymous.
“Some things you can forgive,” the RTÉ panellist said afterwards as he warmed up. “We didn’t get on Ciaran Clark’s case for giving an own goal away against Sweden. We said okay, it can happen. He was in an invidious position the way the ball came in. No one wants to be too critical of players.
“But there’s some things that you can’t forgive; lacking concentration is one of those things.
“We have people like Joe Schmidt in this country. If you go into the dressing room and you aren’t concentrating, if you go on to the pitch and you don’t focus for the whole period you get done by your fellow players, the coach will do you.
“That’s what’s missing in that Irish situation in my opinion. There’s too many players floating through games, the midfield players in particular, I’ve mentioned them time and again: McCarthy and Whelan.
“These fellas are multi-, multi-millionaires. They’re playing in the richest league in the world. But the hunger, the desire… is it there? I don’t think it is, week-in, week-out.
“I think when they put on an Irish shirt it is. But this is habitual. You have to have it every time you go into the training ground. You have to have it all the time.
“I’ve played with John [Giles] in the Irish team and I was just a journey man. But he’d get on my case if you did let the concentration lapse and give a fella a yard.
“The Kilkenny hurling team, Brian Cody – if you lapsed concentration for 10 seconds in training. Joe Schmidt, Ruby Walsh and Willie Mullins, Aidan O’Brien, all the great sports people we have in this country.
“Lapse of concentration? Out the door. It’s a different culture. We have to set the bar up for our soccer players.
“To be fair, they come from a Premier League culture. Everything’s over-hyped, everyone’s a great player and everyone’s walking home with 80 grand a week. That’s not happening in Kilkenny and it’s not happening to our great jockeys, trainers, hurlers, camogie, Cork women football team.
Lapse of concentration? You’re in the wrong place, go down the road.”
