Vera Pauw preaches focus on present - not the future

Ireland’s World Cup destiny will come down to the visit of the Finnish to Tallaght on September 1 and trip to Slovakia five days later – but today they face the Group minnows Georgia

HEAD IN THE GAME: Denise O'Sullivan during Republic of Ireland women training session at David Abashidze Stadium in Tbilisi, Georgia on Sunday. Photo: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

Try as she did to insist that today’s qualifier in Georgia was consuming her attention, Ireland manager Vera Pauw couldn’t help her mind wandering to September’s business end of the World Cup campaign.

The lopsided slew of results in this series has once again provoked the argument that nations like Georgia are better served dodging cannon-fodder status by navigating a preliminary round.