Verbeek: Roos are ready for stern test

IRISH football fans who complain about the renaming of Lansdowne Road should perhaps be grateful that they don’t have to get behind a team called the Aviva Green Boys.

Because, if you didn’t know any better, the preliminaries to yesterday’s pre-match press conference at Thomond Park might have led you to believe that Ireland will today be playing an outfit who go by the name of The Quantas Socceroos.

Still, if the introductory branding was a bit heavy-handed, Australia’s articulate Dutch coach Pim Verbeek ensured that the talk quickly turned to more traditional football matters, as he outlined the significance of this evening’s game for a nation who are already where Ireland would dearly love to be, having qualified for South Africa with a couple of matches to spare.