The Irish soccer team illustrated to RTE what they missed in letting TV3 snap up coverage of away games for Group Eight of the European Championships qualifying rounds.

Last Wednesday's game against Yugoslavia at Lansdowne Road earned the national network a 15 per cent rating and a 44 per cent share of the audience, not a bad figure for a Wednesday evening's viewing.

The share of the audience accounts for all of the networks available in Ireland while the rating can roughly be translated into around 40,000 people per point. That gave the station an audience figure of around 600,000, a very good rating indeed.

Hoping that the lights don't go off again when Ireland meet Croatia today, TV3 may now feel that their investment is finally paying off.