For a man with a patchy track record in dealing with the media, Roy Keane was impressively composed when he arrived for his first official function as captain of the Republic of Ireland team yesterday.

Just hours earlier, Mick McCarthy had taken him aside before a morning training session at Clonshaugh and invited him to take over the job vacated last season by his old comrade in arms, Andy Townsend.

There were no cameras present to record the historic moment but judged on his demeanour in the infancy of his new reign the man, who has been variously described as a maverick and a firebrand at different times in his controversial but largely successful career, didn't keep the gaffer waiting too long for an answer.

No less than the day when he accepted the daunting challenge of succeeding Eric Cantana as Manchester Unted skipper, Keane was "up" for it and it showed.

"It's a great honour for me to be asked to captain the team and hopefully, I'm not going to let anybody down."

"Obviously, it's an important job but I wouldn't put too much emphasis on it. The first essential is to concentrate on my own game and get that right but there are times of course when you have to be aware of the bigger picture".

"Captaining Ireland will be much the same as skippering United. There you have three or four captains on the pitch; senior players who look out for others and talk them through a game.

"At times you can get carried away a bit, shouting at players who you feel are not doing their job. But I do that anyway, whether I'm captain or not.

"That's probably why Alex gave me the job in the first place but it's a two-way thing. Players are entitled to have a go back at me - and they do".

Spread out in front of Keane were at least some of those who in the past had not always been fully appreciative of either his ability to impose himself on a game or the manner in which he went about it.

A shared feeling of mistrust almost, and yet when the pertinent question surfaced, as inevitably it would, he handled it tactfully and with no apparent sense of grievance.

Back at the start of Mick McCarthy's stewardship, the Manchester United midfielder was given the armband when Andy Townsend departed prematurely from the game against Russia at Lansdowne Road. But the gratification of reaching a significant professional landmark was soon eroded when he was red-carded for an ill-advised tackle on an opponent.

That stain has endured over a bridge of two years but now, matured by responsibility, he is ready to prove himself a leader in the mould of two other Cork born players who filled the post before him, Noel Cantwell and Charlie Hurley.

"Yes, I think I have matured in that time and one of the reasons was my time out of the game with injury last season. For the first time in years, I was on the outside looking in and I think I learned a lot from that experience.

"I've changed and at 27 I think I have a good few years left to prove it. And what better way to start than with a good result on Saturday against a team which was superb in the World cup finals in France in the summer.

"I respect Croatia for what they achieved but I'm certainly not overawed by them. They are capable of beating most teams but I still think we'll give them a few problems. And with so many good young players coming through, I'm quietly confident that we can qualify from the group."

Earlier, McCarthy had eliminated doubts about the fitness of Shay Given and Ray Houghton, both of whom are expected to take a full part in training today. And at this point, he has no plans to call up a replacement for the injured Sunderland striker Niall Quinn.

Confirming that Quinn would have started had he been available, the manager said that his loss would not necessarily effect the match plan, a statement which suggests that Tony Cascarino is not without hope of returning to the team.

As yet, however, he is still not divulging his plans for the critical areas in his team; like central defence or his choice of a partner for Roy Keane in the pivotal roles in midfield.

Those are burning topics which are designed to keep us guessing over the next 48 hours but essentially it was Roy Keane's day yesterday. McCarthy had waited a long time for the chance of nominating Keane to lead his team back to fertile pastures. Now, it seemed, he was only too delighted to confirm it.

Stressing that the controversy which followed the player's infamous no show for the American tour two years ago now belonged to history, he said that it had never impinged on their personal relationship.

And in his choice of a man to imbue the team with the same fire, as he himself did in another era, he was unshakeable.

"When you look at Tony Adams running out at the front of Arsenal's team or Paul Ince leading Liverpool onto the pitch, you know they mean business," he said. "That's the kind of image Roy Keane can project for Ireland when we take the field. And hopefully the other players will not be found lacking in their response."