Evan Ferguson (18) is expected to make his competitive senior international debut against France. How have other Irish players, trusted with a competitive game in their teens, coped through the years?
John Giles
Competitive debut, aged 18, H v Sweden, November 1958 (won 3-2)
Giles, thinking ahead to his 19th birthday a few days later, found out he was making his international debut, at home to Sweden, from the newspaper, as Manchester United teammate and fellow Dubliner Joe Carolan spotted the FAI's announcement of their call-up in the Daily Mirror.
"I couldn't stop wondering what would have happened if Joe hadn't gone out and bought the Mirror that day, we received no other notification," Giles recalled in his autobiography.
"The FAI gave the information to the papers and the papers gave it to the players. I was shocked to learn that this is how they do things at Merrion Square."
Giles was in Dublin early that week, playing for United's youth team against Home Farm at Whitehall on Wednesday, the Sweden game was on a Sunday but United wanted Giles to report back for training.
Fog in Dublin meant he could not fly so Giles prepared for his debut by training every day, on his own, in Tolka Park then getting two buses back to the family home on the Navan Road.
On match day he also got the bus to O'Connell Street "with my boots in a brown paper bag" to meet up at the Gresham Hotel on the morning of the game, stopping off for mass en route.
Giles recalled being awestruck at being in the same dressing room as his heroes like Noel Cantwell and Jackie Carey. "The shorts came down over my knees so I had to roll them up a bit," he says.
The game started badly for Ireland as Sweden went 2-0 up but a brilliant Giles volley from 30 yards out lifted the home side. "I could see the keeper sprawling across his goal at the School End, as the ball screamed high into the net, even now I can hear the noise, the Dalymount Roar. The goal changed the game and Dermot Curtis scored twice to make it a 3-2 win."
Ireland's Jimmy Holmes (left) and Don Givens in conversation during squad training in 1981.
Jimmy Holmes
Competitive debut aged 17: H v Austria, May 1971 (lost 1-4)
Then at Coventry City, Dubliner Holmes had yet to play club football before his debut in 1971, on as a second half sub for Don Givens.
"Although the result was a 4-1 defeat, at the age of 17 years and 200 days I had become the youngest ever player to represent the Republic's senior team, a record that still stands," Holmes recalled.
"Here I was, only playing reserve team football, still living in a hostel next to the ground and earning little more than £30 a week yet chosen by my country to play at the highest level."
Not everyone was ready for Holmes to play. When he reported to the Montrose Hotel to meet the squad on the eve of the Sunday fixture, he was first in as the rest were in action for their clubs that day.
"I walked to the counter and inquired if the Irish team had arrived yet. The girl on the desk replied: 'Yes, and if you want some autographs you can leave your book here'.
“I said: 'Sorry miss, but I am one of the players, can I have my room key'," Holmes says in his autobiography, The Day The Dream Died.
The teenager was lost in a man's world – for his evening meal in the hotel restaurant he ordered halibut steak, unaware he was getting fish.
In the warm-up, Holmes was hit with the sense of occasion. "As I ran out on the pitch the Dalymount Roar hit me full on and my mind immediately went back to the days when I would be on the terraces after walking to the ground with my mates from the Oliver Bond Flats."
The Ireland team (including Steve Staunton) that endured a torrid night against Spain in November 1988.
Ireland were 3-1 down when Mick Meagan called Holmes off the bench, even though as a natural left-back he was asked to play out of position on the right but held his own in the 15 minutes of action that he had.
Liam Brady
Competitive debut aged 18: H v USSR, October 1974 (won 3-0)
Brady was already establishing himself in the Arsenal side (who were struggling at the time) when player/manager John Giles gave the long-haired teenager a debut at home to the USSR, the stage of Dalymount Park an emotional setting for the midfielder as he'd watched from the terraces as his brother, Ray, played there for Ireland a decade earlier.
"We were a bunch of pros from varying levels of the game, clinically dismantling the soccer might of Russia in front of a fanatical crowd. The place was absolutely electric, it made my blood pump fast and my scalp tingle," Brady says in his autobiography.
"The dressing room was a babble of happy voices - jokers, boasters, justifiably proud Irishmen who were determined not to let the moment slip away from them.
"How different it all seemed when compared with the cold and clammy hand of disenchantment tightening its grip on Arsenal. So much about football is also about confidence - in yourself, your team-mates, your manager and your supporters. The Irish team had all of those things that October night, Arsenal seemed to have none of them.
"From Paddy Roche in goal to Steve Heighway in the wing, we were a unit. Don Givens scored a fine hat-trick, everyone did his bit and all the factors that go towards making football a great life were there for me to see and understand."
Steve Staunton
Competitive debut, aged 18: A v Spain, November 1988 (Lost 2-0)
Already a first-team player with Liverpool, Staunton had a taste of the big stage as an 18-year-old as he and Mark Kelly were the uncapped duo invited by Jack Charlton to train with the senior squad in Dublin before departure to the European Championship finals but the youngsters stayed at home when the final squad left.
"We were next in line to get the call-up but that didn't happen, but we weren't disappointed when our 10 days in Finnstown House ended with the two of us going home to watch the boys playing in the tournament on TV," Staunton recalled.
He had just one friendly international under his belt, a facile 4-0 win at home to Tunisia, when an injury crisis forced Jack Charlton to pick the Liverpool player to face Spain away in the second game of the 1990 World Cup qualifiers: Chris Hughton, Paul McGrath, Ronnie Whelan, Kevin Sheedy and Frank Stapleton were all absent through injury, so Chalrton was also forced to end his feud with David O'Leary and recall him after two years in exile.
Ireland had done well to hold Spain scoreless for the first half but Manolo pounced on 52 minutes to score, Butragueno adding a second.
"Tunisia was a handy enough spin for me and Mark Kelly but a month later it was a different story against Spain," Staunton said.
"We were outclassed that night yet we battled from the first whistle to the last to keep the score at 2-0. But we knew with so many players missing that night it would be a different story when Spain came to Dublin a few months later." Ireland won that game 1-0. And qualified for the World Cup finals.
Steve Staunton celebrates with team-mate Robbie Keane after scoring his side's winning goa against Malta in 1999.
Robbie Keane
Competitive debut, aged 18: H v Croatia, September 1998 (won 2-0)
Evan Ferguson needed just three games to score his first international goal.
Keane didn't score on his competitive debut but did find the net, twice, in the next game, a qualifier at home to Malta, his fifth senior cap overall.
But while the start of the Euro 2000 qualifiers was perfect for Ireland - a 2-0 win over a Croatian side fresh from a third-place finish at the World Cup finals - it was a tough day for Keane, who was booked and also replaced after an hour.
"It was a hard game to start with but I felt we coped well with it, I think the early goals set us up nicely but at 2-0 up we sat back a bit and that made it harder for me to get chances," Keane said at the time.
"I wouldn't say that it was a frustrating match for me but the two early goals did alter things for us, and I guess that's why I was called off after 62 minutes.
"I had a bit of a difficult time with my marker and I got booked in the first half, I think the referee lost it a little bit because he was giving out a ridiculous number of yellow cards.
"When Keith O'Neill went off injured, Mick McCarthy told me to drop in behind Tony Cascarino to try and stop their runs from midfield, especially (Zvonimir) Boban who was looking increasingly dangerous."
