Cuper: conflict affected players

GEORGIA coach Hector Cuper remains hopeful that his side will be able to play the rest of their Group Eight World Cup qualifiers at home in Tbilisi. If they do, Ireland’s hopes of reaching South Africa will have greatly improved.

Saturday’s game in Mainz was watched by a crowd of only 4,500 with Irish fans greatly outnumbering their ‘home’ counterparts. More than ten times that would have watched the game in the Georgian capital.

Playing in such an emotionally charged atmosphere, and with only a thousand of the ‘Green Army’ present, would have been a far more daunting affair as every Irish player has acknowledged this past week.