EMMET MALONEtalks to Ireland stalwart Richard Dunne as he prepares for the second leg of the Euro 2012 play-offs

PERHAPS HE was inadvertently providing us with a glimpse of how Giovanni Trapattoni motivates his players ahead of big games like tonight’s but there was a fair bit of head-scratching amongst the assembled media in Malahide yesterday when Richard Dunne suggested that the Irish had, amongst other things, made the Estonians eat their words on Friday night.

“The manager has been reiterating the point over the last few days that we have to put a professional performance in for the fans (at the Aviva stadium this evening),” he said, “and out of respect for Estonia who will come as a team that is hurt and looking to make something out of it.

“But I think they might have been a bit surprised by us,” he added in relation to the first leg. “I don’t know if they took us a bit lightly and expected to walk over us from a few of the comments they were saying the night before the game.”

He seemed entirely genuine and yet nobody afterwards could think of anything remotely disrespectful that had been said by Tarmo Ruutli or his players in advance of the game and this despite at least one or two reporters admitting that they had sought to afford the Estonians every opportunity to say something provocative at their pre-match press conference.

Maybe Konstantin Vassiljev and the boys simply swung by the Irish team hotel later on and mocked their opponents.

Dunne, in any case, is pretty respectful himself ahead of the return leg, although the scale of reversal required means that he settles soon enough into contemplating his chance to finally play at a major finals after failing to make it on for a single game 10 years ago in Japan and South Korea, despite starting seven and scoring in two of the 10 group games, and then cruelly missing out in Paris.

“I think Paris gave us the belief that it was going to happen for us again,” he says. “The campaign as a whole and then the performance in Paris – everyone could see that we’d built a squad which was capable. Then, in this group, we were competitive in every game and we’ve got to this stage now where it’s within our grasp and it’s going to be special when it’s completed. To represent your country is an honour in any game, but to do it at a major finals would be brilliant.”

The Dubliner was just eight when Ireland last qualified for a European Championship back in 1988 and rates the whole squad from that time as heroes and so it must have been just a little bitter sweet when his first senior call up nine years later came courtesy of one of Paul McGrath’s sudden, unscheduled departures from the squad. It would be three years, though, before he would make his competitive debut, against the Netherlands in Amsterdam.

At club level he has had his own ups and downs but his commitment to the Irish cause has, given the number of times he has single-handedly carried the team through tough tests like the one in Moscow, been pretty much beyond question.

Asked about it now in the context of the suggestion that the players could make €4 million or more from their jaunt to Poland and Ukraine next summer, he is politely scathing: “We all make enough money at our clubs, playing for Ireland is an honour.”

“It’s not about money. I think the main thing is having the pride of going out and playing in the finals, that’s all that matters to the players.”

Their negotiators just might have his words thrown at them by the FAI over the coming weeks but then the association might be reminded of what he says about the manager’s position too. “I think his record speaks for itself,” insists the 32-year-old. “The campaigns before he came weren’t looking like we were going to qualify and this time we’ve always been in with a chance of topping the group or the play-off. He’s built the squad over the last four years and I think he can carry that on and hopefully get us to the next World Cup.”

Shaping a settled squad over the four years he has been in charge has, says Dunne, been one of the Italian’s secrets and the defender is not anxious to see what he regards as a special bond between the players upset unduly by an influx of newcomers between now and the summer.

What about if a certain team-mate back at Villa decided now was the time to return. “He probably doesn’t even know we’ve qualified.”