Respect Gareth Bale, says Stephen Ward, but don’t forget to play

The more you talk to Republic of Ireland players ahead of tomorrow’s World Cup qualifier against Wales the more obvious it is the fixation on Gareth Bale is centred outside the home team’s camp rather than within it.

The Welshman’s abilities aren’t up for debate.

Bale is a considerable danger to Ireland’s present position at the summit of Group D but a cursory flick through Stephen Ward’s doings in the Premier League is littered with superstar players that require careful attention.

Already this season, the Dubliner has faced Philippe Coutinho, Eden Hazard, Alexis Sanchez, David Silva, Harry Kane and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. A 3-0 loss to Chelsea in August aside, Burnley have proven themselves to be stubborn opposition, at the very least, against the Premier League’s best.

Bale has already popped up on Ward’s radar five times, from when the pair were at Wolves and Tottenham. The last was a 1-1 draw at White Hart Lane in January of 2012 but all of those details were beyond the defender when quizzed on the Real Madrid superstar yesterday.

“He’s got a bit of a free role for them. Everyone knows his quality and it’s up to us to try to keep his effect on the game to a minimum. We respect the whole side, they’ve got a good side, they’ve got players who will try and get in the game. Yeah, he’s one we will have to stop but we’ll be prepared.”

It will be interesting to see how Martin O’Neill actually deals with the Bale question.

When Northern Ireland faced Wales in the last 16 round of Euro 2016, Michael O’Neill tweaked his whole formation and detailed Jonny Evans to see to Bale while Corry Evans spent the guts of his evening stymying the influence of Aaron Ramsey.

It worked, up to a point.

Northern Ireland were marginally the better side in a painfully tight game and hard to watch but Ramsey and Bale still managed to set up the move that delivered the only goal courtesy of Gareth McAuley who sent the ball into his own net.

Roy Keane has already set a tone of sorts for an injury-hit Irish team this week by declaring tackling can still be an effective tool against players of Bale’s class, despite the modern game’s disavowal of the sort of physicality that was still de rigueur in the Mayfield man’s day.

“I think what Roy means is the game is going to be a physical game,” said Ward. “It’s going to be very much like an English league game because the majority of players ply their trade there. The game is a physical game.

“I don’t think he means to go out and intentionally do it. It’s just go out and be competitive. That’s what we need to be. We need to get tight on their players. You can’t afford to give a player of his quality his space so we will need to be right in his face on Friday night.”

Ward, like Keane and his playing colleagues, have spoken well this week.

There have been no lamentations for crocked teammates, no cocky talk about how they will handle Bale, Ramsey et al and even the worth of their experiences at Euro 2016 and the 1-0 win in Vienna in November have been met in a matter-of-fact manner.

“We’ve talked a lot about Gareth Bale and I really think we need to concentrate on ourselves,” said Ward.

“We know how good he is and respect him as a player and how well he has done but we have to concentrate on our own performance.

“Whatever 11 goes out there, we need to put in a performance and get a positive result.”