Rory Delap, a name which scarcely entered Mick McCarthy's calculations at the start of the Republic of Ireland's European Championship programme, was yesterday entrusted with a pivotal role in getting them to the finals.

Delap, out in the cold since winning the last of his three caps as a substitute against Mexico 18 months ago, is primed for the biggest challenge of his career in the first leg of the play-off against Turkey, at Lansdowne Road this evening.

On his ability to convert some excellent form at Derby County into the more valuable currency of competitive international football will depend at least some of Ireland's hopes of taking a lead to Bursa for the return leg next Wednesday.

He joins a team which, once Kenny Cunningham had established his fitness for the task of patrolling the centre of the defence, was always highly predictable. Kevin Kilbane, the leggy West Brom winger, has again resisted Damien Duff's challenge for the task of running the left wing and Ian Harte's withdrawal through injury ensures a seventh cap for Tottenham's Steve Carr at right back.

If not quite the team McCarthy would have chosen with a full complement of players available, it is good enough, he believes, for the challenge of deflating the Turks before they get the opportunity of playing in front of their own passionate supporters.

"It's a team set-up to chase the game and yet structured in such a way that we're unlikely to do anything silly at the back," he said. "I've always said we're good enough to win over the two legs but that doesn't mean that I'm selling Turkey short."

The measure of Delap's impact in this, his most successful season since joining Derby from Carlisle United, is that he has succeeded in overcoming the professional hazards of his versatility to emerge as the club's most realistic asset with five goals.

That is a substantial achievement for a midfielder and undoubtedly, it strengthens McCarthy's hand in the task of plundering the early goal which could sap a lot of the threat from the visiting team. In a significant shift of priorities, Lee Carsley will be deployed as the anchor man, presumably with the specific task of curbing Sergen, and so enable Roy Keane to concentrate exclusively on getting forward. That's a brief the Manchester United captain doesn't receive too often and judged on some of his strikes for Manchester United this season, his self-belief is sufficiently high for him to enjoy it.

Kilbane's preference over Duff is again in line with expectations but one of the more encouraging aspects of the Ireland selection is that it includes several players who are regularly among the goals for their clubs this season with Niall Quinn and Robbie Keane particularly effective for Sunderland and Coventry respectively.

Turkey's transition from scrappers to flair players has been one of the features of European football in recent years. Players like Sergen and Hakan Sukur, their record goalscorer, testify to the new priorities in the team but for all his protestations to the contrary, McCarthy can scarcely be surprised if old instincts surface, particularly in the second game.

Certainly, Tugay, their principal ball-winner in midfield and the uncompromising Fatih and Alpay at the centre of their defence, are unlikely to stand on ceremony. Successful in only one of nine earlier meetings with the Republic of Ireland, Turkey reached the finals of the European Championship in 1996 and, more recently, took four points from their two meetings with Germany.

Having twice spurned precious points in injury time in Croatia and Macedonia, Ireland are entitled to feel aggrieved in being forced to embroil themselves in the lottery of the play-offs.

Ominously, in four previous play-offs in the World Cup and European Championship, Ireland have failed each time. Their prospects of ending that sequence may now depend on their ability to take a lead of not less than two goals with them to Bursa on Sunday morning.

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: A Kelly (Blackburn): S Carr (Tottenham), K Cunningham (Wimbledon), G Breen (Coventry), D Irwin (Man Utd): R Delap (Derby Co), Roy Keane (Man Utd), L Carsley (Blackburn), K Kilbane (West Brom); N Quinn (Sunderland), Robbie Keane (Coventry).

TURKEY (probable): Rustu (Fenerbache); Ogun (Fenerbache), Fatih (Galatasaray), Alpay (Fenerbache), Okan (Galatasaray), Tayfun (Fenerbache), Tayfur (Besiktas), Sergen (Fenerbache), Abdullah (Fenerbache), Hakan Unsal (Galatasaray): Hakan Sukur (Galatasaray).