Ireland's impressive 5-0 victory over Monaco in the Davis Cup at Riverview yesterday has dual significance; Peter Wright's team will not be consigned to the obscurity of Group 3 of the Euro African Zone next season and the promise of a young Irish team is confirmed.

The team's intent was clearly in evidence during yesterday's reverse singles. Despite the irrelevance of the ties, the commitment offered by George McGill, and John Doran was unrelenting.

McGill, a student at the University of Indiana made a very impressive Davis Cup debut. He recovered from a break down in the final set to surprise the visitors' number one Christophe Bossio with a grandstand finish.

McGill's tactics were sound as he pulled back from the brink of a 3-5 deficit to take the third set and match in the 12th game. The Limerick man seemed to pack everything he knows about the game into a blistering closure that saw him drop only eight points while reeling off the last four games.

"George stared defeat in the face and showed maturity to win his match," said Ireland captain, Wright of the player who about to head into next week's British grass court satellite circuits.

John Doran won an absorbing three tie-break rubber against the talented Sebastien Graeff that lasted over two-and-a-half hours.

Both men favoured the heavy game and Doran proved something of a tie-break king, winning the first 7-1 and the third to decide the final set at 7-5. There was much to admire about Doran's general approach. When adversity struck he galvanised his efforts to repeatedly frustrate his opponent. An opportunity to wrap up the match at 6-5 in the second set just eluded him, but Graeff was never allowed to forget the magnitude of his task.

Tommy Hamilton vindicated his high doubles rating of last year on the US Collegiate circuit when finishing with all guns blazing to contribute hugely to the defining doubles win over Graeff and Christophe Boggetti on Saturday.

Cork-born Hamilton averted the danger of a break back by the Monaco pairing in the third game of the third set and three games later, his booming forehand broke Graeff for 5-1 before serving out with confidence and closing the match down with an ace.

Nobody concerned in the doubles however quite attained the excellence of Owen Casey. He maintained his lofty standard to such an extent that one can only wonder if he is capable of a bad game.

Wright now believes that his young team has a realistic chance of qualifying for Group one next season.