World Cup Qualifying/ Republic of Ireland v France: Ireland's competitive record in recent years may do little to generate confidence that Brian Kerr's side can secure the win tomorrow that would put them firmly on course for a place at next year's World Cup finals in Germany.

The fact remains that the French come to Dublin needing to show quite a bit more hunger for qualification than we have seen from them over the course of this campaign to date.

Thierry Henry still seemed slightly surprised last week when he observed that no one had taken advantage of his side's failure to play well during the first phase of this campaign but his behaviour after being replaced with Sylvain Wiltord by Raymond Domenech was a timely reminder that the return of three major talents to the French side in no way addresses the fundamental difficulties that have afflicted the former World and European champions since the middle of last year.

Even without Zinedine Zidane, Lillian Thuram and Claude Makelele the French should have had the collective ability to do much better than they have in this group but the reality is they have not secured a win of note since the current coach took over. The required combination of unity of purpose and desire has clearly been lacking and if some of the stories coming out of the French camp are to be believed things may actually have taken a turn for the worst for Domenech as he prepares for the final phase of this campaign.

Hampered thus far by famously poor relations with his star players, most of whom wanted Laurent Blanc to get the post, the former under-21 coach has been forced to abandon the very job he was appointed to, introducing a new generation of players to replace those who had been part of the French national team's most successful spell ever.

Having to plead with major stars he had previously suggested he no longer needed would be bad enough for Domenech as he tries to retain some measure of authority with the rest of the squad, but if, as was reported here (though not universally accepted back in France) over the weekend, he had next to nothing to do with the return of Zidane and co then the present situation looks an almost complete humiliation for the thoughtful but tough former international midfielder.

According to the new account it was Patrick Vieira who prompted Zidane's return when the pair discussed team affairs at a charity match and the Real Madrid midfielder (and this bit does not appear to be disputed by anyone) recruited Makelele and Thuram to the cause. The players are said to have met subsequently in a Paris hotel where Vieira handed over the captaincy, again without any regard for the wishes of the manager, and between them they mapped out the basis for salvaging the team's faltering qualification campaign.

How much say Zidane subsequently secured for himself in team affairs is almost an irrelevance for previous French coaches have conceded that once the team got out on the pitch the players did more or less as they liked. What seems inevitable, however, is that just about half of the team that takes the field for France tomorrow night is a fait accompli even for Domenech while even those he nominally retains some control over, like Henry, fail to show him the minimal levels of respect generally expected in public on match nights.

Henry's current line is that, having been let off the hook by their rivals so far, France can show that they want to qualify more than Ireland, Switzerland or Israel.

If the French fail to make it to the finals there will doubtless be more mayhem within the camp. But there will be little sympathy for anyone involved from outside after their failure to break down an Israeli team aiming for nothing more than a draw in Paris, David Trezequet's ludicrous sending-off in Tel Aviv and the subsequent Fabien Barthez error which between them cost two more points in Tel Aviv or the largely toothless home performances against Switzerland and Ireland, neither of which yielded even a goal.

For all their flaws, though, the French have remained hard to beat over the past year or so, conceding just one goal and, as Henry contends, remaining in contention while playing well short of their best.

A draw might well do them here in Dublin but one suspects that after the hoopla that has accompanied recent developments they could do with a win if they are avoid further recriminations in the lead-up to their final two games, away to the Swiss and then home to the Cypriots.

On the face of it, they will do well to win at Lansdowne Road where the Irish have not lost a competitive game since the sloppy 2-1 defeat by the Swiss prior to which you have to go back to 1995 and Austria's 3-1 win to find an occasion on which the Republic lost at home when it mattered.

Similarly, though, we haven't made a habit of beating the world's better teams either at home or away in matches where there is something at stake.

Under Kerr the team has won six and drawn one of its games against what might be regarded as lesser sides - Albania, Georgia, Cyprus and the Faroe Islands (just one of which, Albania at 87, is currently ranked in the world's top 100 nations).

Against those in the top 50, meanwhile, there are five draws and one defeat to show for meetings with France and Russia as well as the two each with Switzerland and Israel. Just one of those teams is placed above Ireland in the world ladder.

Not surprisingly then much of the talk over the past few days has been of the win over Holland in 2001 when the Irish overcame what was on paper a superior side thanks to a fiercely determined, endlessly gutsy performance against a side which, it turned out, didn't quite have the stomach for what was required of them.

If Kerr can get the same sort of stuff out of his players tomorrow night then this could well be another occasion that will be remembered for years to come.

If not, we had better hope that the French travel this afternoon without having rediscovered the appetite for glory and glorious football that made them the game's dominant force not so long ago.