Kerr: Keane bust-up claims ‘laughable’

REPUBLIC of Ireland boss Brian Kerr was forced last night into a categoric denial of a bust-up with Roy Keane, reducing the positive news about Damien Duff’s knee injury to a sidebar on the eve of our World Cup duel with France at Lansdowne Road.

Duff's recovery was sidelined by front page evening paper headlines claiming there had been a "Saipan Mk II" in the Irish camp.

There were at least some coincidental echoes of the famous World Cup row, as Kerr quoted directly from a newspaper report and entirely demolished its contents.