Barry Quinn of Coventry City and one of the Premiership's newer arrivals, Gary Doherty of Tottenham, are players in demand as the Republic of Ireland prepare for their end of season programme.

Both were named yesterday in Don Givens's squad for the annual Toulon under-21 tournament in France - beginning on May 25th and running through until June 3rd.

The problem for Givens is that there is every chance Mick McCarthy will wish to include Quinn and Doherty in his plans for the US Cup which overlaps the Toulon tournament by a couple of days.

Quinn, an established player at under-21 level, made his senior international debut against Greece a fortnight ago and made a favourable impression until an ankle injury forced him to depart before halftime. He is still recovering from that knock but is expected to be available.

Doherty also made his senior international debut when replacing Steve Finnan for the last 20 minutes of the Greece game and with doubts surrounding the fitness of Niall Quinn, he may be one of the younger players in line for selection for the three-match American tour.

Another significant selection in the under-21 squad is Joe Murphy, the highly-rated Tranmere goalkeeper, whose name had been mentioned in recent weeks in connection with a move to Liverpool.

Shelbourne's Richie Baker is the sole National League representative in the under-21 squad, a big change from the Greek game when Gary Connaughton (Athlone), Tim McGrath (Waterford), Conor O'Grady (Sligo Rovers) and the UCD pair, Clive Deaney and Ciaran Martyn, all figured in the original selection.

Baker, one of the bigger contributors to Shelbourne's FAI Cup and championship double, could soon be on the way out of the club.

Ollie Byrne yesterday refuted suggestions that they would insist on keeping the player. "It's never been our policy to stand in the way of any of our players going to England and Richie is aware of that," Byrne said.

Following the recent defeat by Greece the Republic of Ireland slipped three places to 39th in FIFA's latest international ranking list. England move up a place to 12th in a list headed, as usual, by Brazil.

Republic of Ireland (Under-21) J Murphy (Tranmere), D Delaney (Everton), C Healy (Celtic), T Heary (Huddersfield), J Gavin (Middlesborough), A O'Brien (Bradford), B McGovern (Arsenal), C Clarke (Stoke), R Partridge (Liverpool), M Rowlands (Brentford), R Baker (Shelbourne), B Quinn (Coventry), J O'Connor (Stoke), D Billington (Sheffield Wednesday), A Quinn (Sheffield Wednesday), G Barrett (Arsenal), G Doherty (Tottenham), J McGrath (Aston Villa), L George (Luton), B Ferguson (Coventry).