For months we've been waiting for this game. Back when the draw was made it even seemed as if this might turn out to be the group's big showdown. Now, with Romania safely through to the finals and us virtually sure of our place in the play-offs, it's little more than a distraction from the real business of Monday's draw.

Injuries, bookings and new recruits needing a run are all certain to play their part in Mick McCarthy's selection for this game but it really doesn't matter too much for, by now, this game carries little more weight than a pre-tournament friendly.

That has its advantages. The chance to give Michael Evans and Lee Carsley a game will be welcome for McCarthy, as will the opportunity to look again at some of his regular squad members who have yet to really prove themselves at international level. But there are drawbacks too and the yellow card situation, in particular, presents McCarthy with a number of difficulties to ponder.

The arrival of Evans, or any other striker at this stage, on the scene will give the Irish boss another useful option. I haven't seen the 24-year-old in action since his days at Plymouth but his approach then, not unlike David Kelly's with speed and a fair bit of strength combined, will add to the squad.

From his point of view this is a tremendous opportunity. A few weeks ago he was mulling aloud over his international options and now he has the opportunity to play his way into McCarthy's plans for a two legged play-off that could lead to a place in the World Cup finals. A great many players never come that close.

For Carsley things may be a little more difficult. He is likely to start this afternoon because Roy Keane is out and likely to make way again when Andy Townsend is fit again. We need somebody to fill the holding role so successfully occupied by Keane in his recent international appearances.

In years to come Carsley may end up taking over the role but for the foreseeable future the experience which Townsend has would appear to make him the obvious choice and in reality the young Derby player is simply getting a chance to stake his claim for the future.

Other than that it's difficult to see what's in this game for the Irish. The Romanians, of course, are already going through the early stages of their preparations for France '98 and there is little telling what their priorities will be today and whatever chance there was of McCarthy putting a strong team through its paces ended with his decision to leave Steve Staunton and Denis Irwin in England because they were both carrying bookings.

It's easy to sympathise with McCarthy's dilemma on this issue but I still happen to think that his approach might have been better. There was nothing to be lost by getting all of the available players together for the training sessions in Dublin.

Work on set pieces and that sort of thing would obviously have been useful to some extent but so too would the opportunity to simply get everybody together. No matter how many more international matches there are these days, you can never have too much of players getting together as a squad at this level.

McCarthy's team selections have been unpredictable in far more straightforward circumstances while this time he has 11 players with cards hanging over them - although he simply can't protect all of them.

Shay Given is a certainty to start, as is Ray Houghton who has been named as captain. After that there are a fair few options to be gone through.

Tactically this might be an opportunity for McCarthy to review his position but he seems to have abandoned his original preference for playing three centre backs while in this game he may well opt for the straight 4-4-2 approach.

Tony Cascarino will probably start up front with Jason McAteer in midfield but it will be interesting to see what he decides to do after that. Mark Kennedy is one of those who has already been booked but McCarthy may want to give the Dubliner a chance to play, while in defence there is the question of whether to allow defenders not used to working with each other (or, in some cases, playing the position they are asked to play for Ireland) or to rest them for fear that a booking would rule them out of the first play-off match.

Personally my preference would be to play them now, and take the chance on the benefits outweighing the drawbacks but McCarthy, it seems, may view the situation differently.

Whether he is right will not start to become clear until the end of the month for, win, lose or draw, little will be learnt from this outing. Come October 29th, though, it will be a very different story.

(In an interview with Emmet Malone)