Mick McCarthy was yesterday contemplating the prospect of revisiting history after the draw for the preliminaries of the 2002 World Cup put Ireland on course for meetings with Holland and Portugal.

Cyprus, Estonia and Andorra are the other countries in a group, officially described by the Irish delegation attending the draw in Tokyo, as "difficult, but not the worst".

Like the Republic, Northern Ireland have been drawn in a six-team group in which the Czech Republic and Denmark seem certain to contest the one automatic qualifying place, with Bulgaria likely to present them with their biggest threat.

A place in the play-offs may be the limit of England's achievement after being drawn in the same group as Germany. Scotland hold a possibly realistic chance of topping their group in competition with Belgium and Croatia.

Prevented by personal reasons from accompanying Pat Quigley and Bernard O'Byrne to Tokyo, Mick McCarthy followed the draw on television in his home town of Barnsley and afterwards echoed the feelings of many when he described it as an opportunity of redressing an adverse trade balance with the Dutch.

"Yes, we have some old scores to settle with them," he said. "They have twice beaten us at the highest level in recent times and they are a team which will always provide quality opposition.

"The make-up of their side will have changed considerably from the last time we played but they will always put a strong team on the park. We will not be intimidated by them however, and hopefully we can now turn the tables."

In Holland, the immediate reaction was to focus on the threat presented by a Portuguese team which grew to new maturity in qualifying for the finals of the Euro 2000 championship next summer, albeit as the best of the second placed teams.

At least one Dutch newspaper, however, emphasised the unique rapport between Dutch and Irish fans, describing the European championship play off at Anfield in 1995 as one of the great occasions of international football in modern years. They also pointed, with some justification, to the jarring fact that they have lost only once in their last seven competitive meetings with the Irish.

Of the eight games against Portugal, only two were competitive. Ireland's 1-0 win at Lansdowne Road in the preliminaries of the 1996 European championship, was described by Dr Joao Havelange, the former president of FIFA, as a marvellous celebration of football. Irish fans have less reason to remember the return game in Lisbon's Stadium of Light when on a foul night of rain and wind, the Portuguese ran in three goals without reply.

In common with their neighbours Spain, Portugal have frequently under achieved in international football but the word among the cognoscenti is that the Iberian renaissance first noted two years ago, is still gathering momentum.

History teaches that countries ignore the lower seeded teams at their peril on occasions such as these but if Cyprus, undeniably, have progressed from the days when they were regarded as mere fodder for the ambitious, it is difficult to describe Andorra and Estonia as anything other than making up the numbers.

It is perhaps, worth recalling that it was in Cyprus in John Giles's last game in charge of the Irish team, that our prospects of qualifying for the 1982 World Cup final in Spain were irreparably damaged.

The Irish, three times ahead, still had to content themselves with a 3-2 win in the opening game in the group in Nicosia and in the event, that was ruinous. France and Holland both achieved much bigger victories there and, in the end, Ireland lost out on goals difference for a place in the finals.

Nineteen years on, memories of that tantalising miss are still vaguely painful but logic, pedigree and almost everything else which goes to define victors and vanquished, suggests that McCarthy's squad of big earners, should win both legs of the tie, fairly comfortably.

In that situation, Ireland's prospects of qualifying will come down to their ability to win both their home games against Holland and Portugal and then save a point on their visits to Rotterdam and Lisbon for the reverse legs of the ties.

That, of course, is a challenge which is easier said than done but McCarthy takes heart from the fact that Ireland are gradually rediscovering the authority which made them almost invincible at home at the height of Jack Charlton's time in charge.

"In competitive football, you cannot hope to survive if you don't win your home games and our record in the recent European games in which we beat Croatia, Macedonia and Yugoslavia in turn at Lansdowne Road was highly encouraging."

Romania and Italy are headed for some of the sharpest competition of all in Group 8 and, no less than the rivalry of Germany and England in Group 9, it promises be to be enthralling. The nine group winners qualify automatically for the finals in Japan and Korea with the nine second placed European teams, joining the third placed team in Asia, in play-offs to establish five more of the 32 finalists. France, as holders, are not required to qualify.

Precise arrangements for the Group Two games will be made at a meeting in Amsterdam next month when the bartering over dates and venues threatens to be as complex as ever. All six teams in the group offered to host the meeting but, eventually, Amsterdam was chosen because of its accessibility.

Bernard O'Byrne, who will accompany McCarthy to that meeting, described the draw for the preliminaries as "very exciting. It is a attractive group with a minimum of four very inviting fixtures in prospect. The home and away ties against Holland and Portugal should be great footballing occasions."

Those sentiments were endorsed by Pat Quigley, the FAI President who said that after the vicissitudes of the Euro 2000 draw, Tokyo now offered Irish fans some excellent opportunities of travelling abroad with their team.