CALL IT a lesson. The full strength Irish side were handed similar tutorials in the fine arts of football by Argentina and Russia this past year. No harm that the understudies are equally exposed to the elite faction of international football.

The reaction to falling 3-1 behind before half-time would have told Giovanni Trapattoni a lot about his squad players.

At least Keith Fahey’s penalty two minutes into the second half kept the sparse attendance in their seats until the finish.

Despite all the technical excellence of Uruguay, there is no sight more beautiful than last year’s World Cup semi-finalists back-peddling as a full blooded Irish revival thundered down upon them.

“In general I think we had a good performance taking into consideration we put together nearly a new team in two days,” said Trapattoni. “We played against a super football team who plays together for a long time and in a World Cup.

“We had some very good individual performances from Long, Fahey, Kelly and O’Dea. And only two mistakes, lost the ball to them twice and conceded two goals. “I think we deserved to draw in the second half. We had some very good opportunities with Long and Keogh. Westwood also made a good save.”

James McCarthy’s 65 minutes was largely confined to snapping at South American heels, rather than play-making like Diego Forlan, who adopted a similar role in front of this young Irish defence.

The difference was Uruguay owned the ball when they needed to. They showed McCarthy and the other Irish midfielders how to play the possession game.

“It is not McCarthy’s fault,” Trapattoni insisted. “It is not easy playing his position (the hole) with a new team.

“He has no fault whatsoever. We are just trying to find his position. The team didn’t pass the ball to him when he was free. I know exactly this type of situation. I’m sorry for him actually. He was a little bit down but there will be other opportunities.”

The Irish defence can consider themselves unlucky for the first Uruguayan goal. Keith Fahey’s clearing header rebounded off Napoli’s Edinson Cavani, presenting captain Diego Lugano with a simple task.

The now consistently impressive Shane Long pulled matters level within three minutes, climbing high to nod in a decent cross by Liam Lawrence.

Uruguay briefly upped the tempo, with Maximiliano Pereira moving laterally past Paul Green and then Fahey on the edge of the Irish box before slipping a neat pass into Cavani. Keiren Westwood, who showed well on the night, could get nowhere near his curling finish.

Both Ciarán Clark and Darren O’Dea are contenders to try and fill the suspended Richard Dunne’s jersey in Macedonia this June but the immediate return of Seán St Ledger or John O’Shea, will also be welcomed.

Abel Hernandez seemed to have settled matters before the interval when gliding between O’Dea and Clark before side-footing past a hapless Westwood. “We passed the ball well but we got sucked into playing too attack minded and got caught out on the break twice,” said Irish captain for the night, Stephen Kelly. “Our full backs got caught out of position but playing against a team of that standard it was a good performance.”

And then came the revival. Andy Keogh almost levelled matters but his header eased the wrong side of the back post.

“There were some moments when we didn’t take care of the defence and you might have taken advantage of the situation,” was the brief reaction of Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez.