The Captain: Mary Hannigan talks to Robbie Keane about a team in transition

Hariye Rezvanoglu was up in court in Nicosia during the week on fraud and sorcery charges, the 68-year-old woman accused of conning a man by telling him that he had been cursed - and that she could lift the curse for £500. He handed over the money the following day. He wasn't identified, but after the build-up he's had to today's game against Cyprus in Hariye's home town you'd wonder if his name is Steve Staunton.

Cursed, he's been. Or, "that's football", as he puts it himself. Mind you, he still has Richard Dunne, Andy O'Brien, Steve Finnan, John O'Shea, Kevin Kilbane, Damien Duff, Robbie Keane and Aiden McGeady to call upon. But, in squad terms at least, even more youth has been given its fling, and so youthful do some of the new breed look one assumes the squad's Limassol hotel was chosen because of its top class kiddies' pool. Alan O'Brien, in particular, is so fresh-faced he could do with water wings.

Robbie Keane thought he was a young man until training yesterday morning but, for the first time in his Irish career, he found himself categorised as a veteran. "You feel really old," he said, shaking his head, "in "young v old" this morning I was on the old team, which felt strange at the age of 26 - but the oldies won, which was good. But yeah, it's different.

"But it's good, it happens in football, at club and international level now, a lot of younger players are coming through and I think that's very important. They're the future of Irish football, they've come in this week and I have to say they've been tremendous."

Never more than now, he insists, does he feel the responsibility of captaincy, spending much of the week talking to "the young lads" and encouraging them. "Yeah, I've gone around to them, I don't knock at their rooms and wake them up, but on the training pitch I've spoken with them. But not just me, the other older players too, Kevin Kilbane, Richard Dunne, John O'Shea as well - I know he's young but he's seen as a senior lad. But the way they've trained this week it's like they were senior international players for the last 10 years, they've been brilliant. They're doing it at club level as well, so there's no reason why they can't do it for us.

"But I've always tried to encourage the young players in the squad, to be honest with you. Of course there's more responsibility on you as captain so I'll go around and have a few words with them, just to help them and build their confidence. It's up to the more senior players to rally around the younger lads, have a little word in their ears, but they're playing for their country, it's a massive game, they don't need anyone to tell them that."

The only memory he wants to retain from last year's game in Cyprus, when a woeful Ireland scraped to a 1-0 win, is the result. "We got three points, and that was the most important thing. I know we didn't play as well as we would have liked but if we were asked would we take the three points tomorrow with 1-0 you'd have to say 'yeah', wouldn't you?"

And while his manager might be thinking long term Keane is reluctant to look beyond qualifying for the 2008 European Championships. "I know what Stan's saying, to plan for four years because there've been a lot of changes over the last year, but of course deep down the players and everyone else are desperate to qualify, there's no question about that. Every player wants to play in the best competitions, we were disappointed not to qualify for the World Cup so, as a team, we'll be hoping to qualify for the Europeans. That's something we'll be aiming to do."

Speaking of Staunton? Have you noticed any difference in him this week, knowing that he won't be on the bench for the game? "Yeah, we've kept the water bottles away from him, that's been the difference. Na, he's been himself, the usual Stan." Although, perhaps, £500 out of pocket.