With their first outing of this year's Toulon Under-21 international tournament fast approaching, the preparations of Don Givens and his players appeared to be going well yesterday with everybody in good spirits after their defeat of a local junior side in a friendly game.

Putting eight goals past the under-17s of host club Racing Club de Toulon can hardly be taken as much of an indication of the Irish players' prospects against defending champions Colombia tomorrow evening. But with all his players coming through the run-out comfortably, Givens had some cause for satisfaction ahead of the first real test of his new career.

The fact that Michael Reddy - only called into the squad last week and initially rated as doubtful because of injury - scored two of the eight goals is encouraging.

Givens knows that his team will have to perform much better here than they did in his first two games in charge, against the Czech Republic and Sweden, if they are to progress from a group that also includes Portugal and Ghana. With players like Barry Quinn and Gary Doherty, the coach does at least have the nucleus of the Irish Youths team that won a European title in Cyprus two years ago.

The squad has one final day to prepare for the Colombia game after which they take on Ghana on Saturday and Portugal on Monday. The other group features Italy, Mexico, Ivory Coast and Japan.