Republic of Ireland 3, Denmark 0: It may be debatable how much store you set in these warm-up friendlies, but as they reflect on another good night at Lansdowne Road, Mick McCarthy and his players will take satisfaction form the ease with which they are coasting through their preparations for this summer's World Cup.

Denmark, without doubt, were disappointing but Ireland's superiority was clearcut throughout and not just on the fringes of the visiting team's area where Jason McAteer, Ireland's central midfielder and, in particular, Damien Duff did more or less as they pleased.

Elsewhere the home side were comfortable, too, and if there was a downside, it was the fact that once again a couple of split seconds of carelessness by Irish defenders might have allowed the opposition to put a very misleading slant on the scoreline.

Fortunately for Ian Harte and Kenny Cunningham, there was the another exemplary performance form an Irish goalkeeper, both of them in fact, for Dean Kiely and Nicky Colgan both produced saves of quality we expect from the rested Shay Given.

By half-time the game might well have been over, for the Danes had started so slowly that they had allowed themselves to be more or less over-run during the opening exchanges.

With Duff in playful mood out on the left flank, and that was where the bulk of their problems originated, they found it hard to deal effectively with McAteer set-pieces, too. Thomas Rytter, in particular, was being given the sort of roasting by Duff that should do wonders for the morale of their group opponents Uruguay and Senegal, not to mention the French.

Duff's efforts came close to setting up Clinton Morrison for his second international goal on a couple of occasions during the opening quarter of an hour while a McAteer free from the other flank provided another opportunity that might have ended up in the back of the net.

The 22-year-old Morrison lacked a bit of good fortune, perhaps, for none of the passes aimed at him quite provided him with the chance to meet the ball without severely altering his stride. The upshot was that none of the attempts on goal produced enough power to seriously test Thomas Sorensen even if the goalkeeper did look a little lucky to prevent one Morrison shot reaching Robbie Keane who was lurking just beside the right hand post. Still, last night Morrison always seemed to be in the right place, a sign of a good striker.

But when the situation required it Sorensen showed that he could produce a decent stop and the Sunderland goalkeeper did very well to keep the ball out when both Harte and Christian Poulsen helped it towards the goal from just five or six yards out after McAteer had floated it in from another set-piece.

However, he was helpless for Harte's opening goal in the 19th minute. The Irish left back easily got ahead of his marker before wrongfooting the goalkeeper with a header into the top right corner after some superb footwork by Duff had tied Martin Laursen up in knots before delivering a tantalising cross.

There was, there seemed, the promise of plenty more to come but with the lead taken, Ireland's game went curiously flat and the visitors finally began to get themselves into the game.

With less pressure on their midfield to retreat the 4-3-3 formation fielded by Morten Olsen started to assume its proper shape and suddenly there were the first hints that the Danes might pose an attacking threat of their own if given any sort of chance to run at McCarthy's back four.

As it turned out they rarely produced much more than half chances with the exception of Dennis Rommedahl, who produced a powerfully struck shot from a tight angle. Dean Kiely saved well and the attempts at a follow-up were quickly smothered but Harte's initial error in allowing his opponent to get behind him was another example of a dangerous weakness all too regularly exposed.

None of which seemed to matter so much after Robbie Keane, for a second successive month, had ensured the win by doubling Ireland's lead in the 54th minute. It was a peach of a goal too; Staunton's quickly taken short free-kick apparently catching the Danes off guard before the Leeds striker sent the ball curling into the top right-hand corner of the net from 25 yards out. It was his 10th goal in 31 appearances.

With the game in the bag McCarthy opted to give Colin Healy another chance to impress and a couple of minutes later Nicky Colgan was given his senior debut while Steven Reid was brought on for McAteer. None disappointed with Colgan making enough contact with the ball at the feet of Ebbe Sand's feet to force the striker into knocking the ball out of play after a terrible error by Cunningham had left his goalkeeper one-on-one with the leading European scorer in the recent World Cup qualifying campaign. Healy then marked his own arrival with a sudden burst of speed in midfield followed by a clever through ball that almost sent Morrison clear at the other end.

With the game moving into injury time the young Corkman again underlined his potential by playing a key role in the third before David Connolly played Morrison in beyond the last defender for a deserved strike that capped a great night for the Crystal Palace player.

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: Kiely (Charlton) (Colgan (Hibernian, 66 mins); Kelly (Leeds), Cunningham (Wimbledon), Staunton (Aston Villa), Harte (Leeds); McAteer (Sunderland) (Reid (Millwall), 66), Kinsella (Charlton) (Healy (Coventry), 64 mins), Holland (Ipswich), Duff (Blackburn) (Dunne (Manchester City) 85); Morrison (Crystal Palace), Robbie Keane (Leeds) (Connolly (Wimbledon, 76).

DENMARK: Sorensen (Kjaer, halt-time); Rytter, Laursen, Henriksen, Heintze (Jensen, 81 mins); Poulsen, BS Nielsen, A Nielsen (Madsen, half-time); Rommedahl (Lovenkrands, 68 mins), Sand, Gronkjaer.

Referee: B Lawlor (Wales).

Republic of Ireland ... 3

Denmark ... 0