Stevens ready to back up Kenny's case for the Ireland defence

One of the first utterances made by Stephen Kenny when he was handed the baton from Mick McCarthy earlier this year was his observation that the Republic of Ireland already possessed one of the ten best defences in the European game.

This wasn't a casual opinion. Kenny processed the data and went through the numbers and he based his findings on the back four that started against Denmark last November at the Aviva Stadium: Matt Doherty, John Egan, Shane Duffy and Enda Stevens.