Nations League could prove more meaningful than expected

Even on the back of a painful hiding, one game into a new campaign might seem a bit too early to be talking about crisis.

But the difficulty in avoiding the word is that in Cardiff on Thursday, Ireland took up where they left off in Dublin in November — forced into playing the role of whipping boys in green. In successive competitive games, at home to Denmark and away to Wales, they have now shipped a whopping nine goals and scored just two.

In between, there have been those underwhelming spring and summer friendlies, from which by some distance the most promising development was Declan Rice’s emergence as a senior international exuding class and composure beyond his years.