Dunne still believes he can play on biggest stage
The Irish squad, having exited the tournament in that dramatic and heartbreaking shoot-out with Spain, are in the departures lounge in Seoul airport. Steve Staunton and Niall Quinn are sitting one seat apart, preparing to board a plane for the final time as members of the Irish squad. On this, the first official day of their retirement, they are cheerfully playing host to a steady stream of well-wishers and fans.
But, sitting between them, and almost completely ignored by the autograph seekers, is another Irish player. It’s a young Richard Dunne, who’d sweated daily on the training pitches of Japan and Korea for the guts of a month, but never got to grace the big stage for even one minute.
It’s salutary to think that, nine years on, he still hasn’t, despite emerging since then as every bit as much an Irish mainstay as Staunton and Quinn were in their day. Little wonder then that as the current crop enter into what could prove to be a defining few days on the road to Poland and Ukraine, Richard Dunne is more acutely aware than most of the pain of missing out.
“I’d love to play in a major tournament for Ireland,” he said.
“This is probably my second last chance of trying to get there. I’d love to do it, and come the summer it would give the whole country a lift.”
To that end, Ireland’s ‘Minister for Defence’ fully appreciates the importance of the team racking up a record six clean sheets in a row by keeping Slovakia at bay in the Aviva tomorrow night.
“One of the main things is you’ve got to stop conceding from set pieces,” he observed.
“Clean sheets give you a chance of winning eight times out of 10. And with Robbie [Keane] and Kev [Doyle] up front you’ve always got a chance of scoring. So if we can keep a clean sheet tomorrow night, as well as setting a record, we’ll go a long way to winning the game.”
Dunne doesn’t disagree that tomorrow’s game should be the more winnable of the two big ones to come yet he’s also keen to talk up Ireland’s chances in Moscow.
“We can’t just go to Russia and think we need to be lucky to get something. I think over the summer, and since they beat us here, the squad has gotten stronger. We have a bit more experience and the results since then have been great. We’ve a bit more confidence too. We don’t go into games anymore looking for draws. From the outset we are looking to win and as the game pans out then we’ll see how it is and make sure we don’t lose.”
In fact, Dunne regards the 3-2 home defeat by Russia last year as a serious wake-up call for this team.
“It was disappointing because we probably went into it with the mindset where we thought we were hard to beat and we didn’t do the basic things right on the night,” he said.
“We made ourselves easy to beat. So we have to realise that we are hard to beat but only as long as we perform and work really hard in every game.
“Whoever has the more determined players will win. It’s not formations, it’s about attitude and once we go there we’ll feel like we have a score to settle. We certainly didn’t give it our best shot against them last year.
“I think Russia are a really good side. I think even if we didn’t play great, they played well on the night anyway. But they are not miles ahead of us.”
Encouragingly, Dunne starts this international season in a positive frame of mind having made the wrong kind of headlines on and off pitch during Gerard Houllier’s reign at Villa Park.
“I didn’t enjoy last season, feel like it was a waste,” he said. “I want to do as best as I can this year and try and get back to how I played a couple of years ago. After the first few games I feel sharp and fit, and I think my form is okay.”
Looking a long way ahead, the defender seems rather taken with the idea of following in Keane’s footsteps to America.
“Would I consider it? Yeah. I think it would be nice to live the lifestyle out there. If the opportunity came at 34, 35, I’d definitely take it.”
Much closer to home, this Tallaght man has been delighted to see Shamrock Rovers’ success in the Europa League but it sounds like it still won’t be enough to tempt him to join his local team when his time is up in England. “Not unless they move to LA,” he grinned.
As for when he might consider calling it a day in the green shirt, well, that too will be dictated in large part by what happens tomorrow in Dublin, on Tuesday in Moscow and in the remaining two games of the current campaign.
Dunne, who turns 32 next month, said: “If we qualified then you might start thinking we’re going through a period where we might start qualifying for more tournaments. I wouldn’t want to miss out on that if I had the chance.”
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