Mick McCarthy will trust supple legs and stout hearts to produce the win which can herald a new beginning for his Republic of Ireland squad in today's European Championship meeting with Croatia at Lansdowne Road.

McCarthy cast aside the options offered by his two senior players, Ray Houghton and Tony Cascarino to put running power at the top of his priority list in the substantial challenge of outplaying a country, now acknowledged among football's power brokers.

It means that Mark Kinsella, no more than an agitated witness to Ireland's diminishing fortunes in recent years, will link with Roy Keane to form the midfield axis of a team which features the recall of Keith O'Neill in attack.

And with Phil Babb, as expected, resisting the claims of Gary Breen and Ian Harte to join Ken Cunningham in central defence, the essential balance of maturity and mobility appears to have been secured.

It is, almost certainly, the most enterprising formation that McCarthy has produced since his first year in charge - one in which Denis Irwin is the only player on the wrong side of 30 - and the sense of satisfaction showed at the press conference which followed yesterday morning's training session in the rain at Lansdowne Road.

"It's a team that reflects our ambition to start with a win," he said. "Playing away from home it might have been slightly different but I'm satisfied that it's the right one for this particular game.

"There are plenty of legs in there and enough skill to ensure that we'll be able to get the Croatians under real pressure."

On Kinsella's promotion for his first competitive international game, he said: "Mark is a box-to-box player and he's impressed me every time I've watched him. He's on a good roll with his club and that's always a consideration going into a big international match."

It means that Houghton, like Cascarino, will be on the bench at the start but depending on the way the plot unfolds, either or both, could yet have an influence on a game which is likely to colour the remainder of Ireland's European programme profoundly.

O'Neill's inclusion at the expense of Cascarino suggests that the ball will be routed through the channels rather than hoisted towards a target man in the manner of the previous administration.

In that, McCarthy is staying loyal to the principles he defined at the start of his term of office, although some may find difficulty is squaring it with an earlier statement by the manager that he would have started with Niall Quinn if the Sunderland player was available.

No less than Quinn, O'Neill has known his share of grief with injuries. Yet, the exciting promise of his early international appearances endures, to give hope of another swashbuckling contribution.

"Keith may not be as good a header of the ball as Niall or Tony but he's still a big strong player with the type of pace that gives defenders genuine problems," McCarthy said. "We've missed that in some of our games and it's now great to have him back."

Comparisons with Michael Owen are, one suspects, mildly flattering to Robbie Keane at this embryonic stage of his career. And yet, just as surely as the Liverpool player has brought new flair to England's attack, the Wolverhampton player is opening up a whole new vista for Ireland.

Against a defence which did not stand on ceremony in their progress to the semi-finals of the World Cup in France, achievement is not going to be easy. And yet, in the verve and aggression of two players still largely unfamiliar with the cynicism of modern international football, there is cause for real hope.

Damien Duff, another of those still only making their way at the top level, is preferred to Mark Kennedy for the task of running the left wing and no less than the rejuvenated Jason McAteer on the opposite flank, his is an important responsibility if, as anticipated, the Croatians opt for a strategy of defence in depth.

In that eventuality, the onus will be on the Irish wide men to get in behind the full backs and hopefully, prise enough space in a saturated penalty area to give O'Neill and Keane the opportunities to put Croatia's goalkeeper Drazen Ladic under real pressure.

Slaven Bilic, who incurred the wrath of many for that infamous incident involving Laurent Blanc in France, is one of a number of key players missing from from the Croatian team. Out also are Robert Prosinecki and the feared Real Madrid striker, Davor Suker, and Alen Boksic.

Even the most affluent footballing nations struggle in those circumstances and that, perhaps, was the cause of the tension when Miroslav Blazevic, their extrovert coach, fielded some apparently difficult questions from members of the Croatian media corps.

The soft, measured tones of the interpretor, we suspected, were not conveying the full impact of the tense question and answer exchanges which Blazevic frequently ended with the message - "but we are the third best team in the world".

That hinted at differences of opinion in the the camp. And there were differences, too, in the responses, Blazevic delivered when asked to predict the result. After stating that he would be happy to return with a point on his arrival in Dublin on Thursday, he was speaking yesterday of opportunities to win the game.

That, one can only surmise, was the product of a late night video session on Thursday when he watched a tape of Ireland's game against Argentina. The manager was not, apparently impressed and now predicts a win.

To succeed away from home, without four of his better players would be a substantial coup for Blazevic. And doubtless, he will be looking to Zvonimir Boban and Aljosa Asanovic, two of those who deserved to be rated among he better midfielders during France '98, to show the way.

Boban, in particular, is capable of inflicting some damage with his incisive passing if the Croatians opt for a policy of attacking on the break and that, in turn, will focus still greater attention on Babb's return to the centre of the home defence.

McCarthy spoke for many when he said that Ireland now needed the Phil Babb of 1994 rather than the fallible player we have seen the intervening period. There were signs in the second half of the Argentina game that the graph of his career is beginning to climb again.

Croatia will provide a different type of challenge today and for Babb, no less than those lining up alongside him, Irwin, Cunningham and Steve Staunton, vigilance will be the name of the game.

In searching for sustenance, Ireland will find comfort in the historical statistic that World Cup exploits in the summer occasionally dull the sense of urgency for European championship action in the autumn.

A more realistic source of encouragement, perhaps, is the fact that after long, painful months out of the game, Roy Keane is back to bring his special qualities to the team.

A year ago to the day, Keane answered doubts about his form by scoring twice in the 4-2 win over Iceland at Reykjavik. It may not be too much to hope that he can now bring a similar influence to bear on this, one of the most important days of the season for Irish football.

The Teams

Network 2 (3.0)

Republic Of Ireland: S Given (Blackburn), D Irwin (Man Utd), K Cunningham (Wimbledon), P Babb (Liverpool), S Staunton (Liverpool), J McAteer (Liverpool), M Kinsella (Charlton Ath), R Keane (Man Utd), D Duff (Blackburn), R Keane (Wolves), K O'Neill (Norwich).

Croatia: D Ladic (Zagreb), S Simic (Zagreb), Z Soldo (Stuttgart), I Stimac (Derby Co), K Jurcic (Zagreb), M Stanic (Parma), Z Boban (AC Milan), R Jarni (Real Madrid), A Asanovic (Panathinaikos), S Maric (Zagreb), J Pamic (Rostock).