Henry’s sweet and sour sauce

BRIAN Kerr may never have appeared on RTÉ’s The Restaurant, but he prepared a menu high on basic ingredients for last night’s diners in Dublin 4.

Poached pragmatism with a sensible sauce, cooked on high pressure and stirred by 36,000 commis chefs, we think. Sometimes the occasion is just too important to go dipping through the book of fabulous concoctions, and last night's Le Crunch was one such. But deep down, the Irish manager must always have feared the intervention of filthy, naked talent.

For all the fine talk in Clairefontaine and Malahide last week, neither Kerr nor Raymond Domenech would have rejected another stalemate in the Group of Draws. The difference, unpalatable though it is, was quality finishing. Sometimes, you need that extra ingredient.