When Carla Ward and her backroom team pick the bones out of Tuesday night's fustrating defeat to France, they might circle, underline and highlight one name in particular: Emily Murphy.
The Newcastle United forward was the youngest player in Ireland's starting XI at Tallaght Stadum - she turned 23 on Monday. Anna Patten, 26, was next, with the rest all 28 and upwards.
That is obviously an issue. There's outstanding servants in this group but they can't go on forever. The squad needs a flush of youth, and yet it's hard to blood young talent when you're facing into World Cup qualifiers against the likes of France and the Netherlands, who Ireland face on Saturday.
Ward has namechecked Madison McGuane (Treaty United) and Aoibhe Brennan (Bohemians) as two who could potentially step up at some point, but it won't be during this campaign. The standard is too ruthlessly high, the pace and physicality on another level. This points to a wider debate about infrastructure, pathways and just how the FAI can improve those crucial areas when they're so strapped for cash.
The bottom line is, right now breakthrough talents like Murphy are extremely important. The former captain of England's Under-17s has the raw talent to be the Girls in Green's leading creative light over the next five years with Katie McCabe and Denise O'Sullivan in the autum of ther illustrious careers.
Her pedigree is obvious. When Murphy was 16, she scored a brace in Chelsea's 4-0 FA Cup win at Charlton. It was her first start for the club, and boss Emma Hayes described her as "the future". After her progression slowed, Murphy went to Birmingham City - then managed by Ward - before heading on a scholarship to the USA to study political science.
"I went there to tell her I was leaving her out but that day she was absolutely superb."
Murphy was playing college football when she declared for Ireland in February 2024, impressing on her debut in a friendly against Wales when Eileen Gleeson was at the helm.
Ward knew all about Murphy's potential, but felt she'd underperformed in the early part of Ireland's 2025 Nations League campaign. The head coach intended to drop her from the squad ahead of the double-header against Greece last March. By then Murphy was at Newcastle United, playing full-time football again, searching for the sharpness that defines her game. A Tyne-Wear derby proved a turning point.
"It's funny, we sat having coffee this morning and I was telling the story that before the Greece camp I went to Newcastle to watch her play against Sunderland," Ward said in the wake of last night's 2-1 loss to France.
"I went there to tell her I was leaving her out but that day she was absolutely superb. By the end of the game I thought, 'I can’t leave her out'.
"So she came to see me upstairs thinking that the message would be she’d be left out. I said to her, 'I was going to leave you out of the camp because I need to see more'.
"But what I’ve just seen out there (against France) is what we need. By the way, her reaction, she’s been different level since then. She’s come in, got her head down and has been top.
"She probably knew that she wasn’t as sharp in that first camp. I needed more and made it clear that I needed more from the group. Yeah, I went there and she changed my mind in 90 minutes at St James’s Park. I got on a flight back to Dublin, named her in the squad the next morning and left someone else out."
That's a sliding doors moment Ireland supporters might revisit in years to come. The supply line is not choc-a-bloc with young attackers ready to make an impact on the international stage; all jewels must be cherished.
Murphy was excellent against Les Bleus but she was not alone. There was ample silk and steel in a gutsy Irish display that merited a point. Melvine Malard's brace, and Marie-Antoinette Katoto's goalline clearance at the death, spoiled the party.
When the dust settles, Ward must coldly analyse what went wrong.
"I'll have a look at (the French goals), but the first one, if I remember rightly, I think we can stop it a lot earlier and then we're emergency defending," she offered.
"We'll look at them tonight… I'll have a look at them tonight. The players will be looking at them tomorrow and we'll fix what we need to do.
"What I would say is that last ten minutes, we chucked everything at them. We really did. You could see that they dropped off there. You saw their reaction at the end. That was huge for them. They didn't get that easy. Like I said, (French boss Laurent Bonadei) was very complimentary after… we made it horrible for them."
Onwards to the Netherlands then, where Ireland claimed an incredible 0-0 draw back in 2017 when Colin Bell was at the helm. Sarina Wiegman's Oranje were arguably the best team in the world at that time. Not that it will be mentioned in the dressing room this week.
"They won't even talk about the last win over France (in 2024)," Ward said. "They’re getting fed up with everyone talking about it. They want to talk about this new era so there’s no talk about that.
"We're not here to make up the numbers, we want to achieve something. I believe that in 14 months we've come an awfully long way on the ball, off the ball. I think we've shown that and continue to show that and they have to hold on to that, because we have to go now and compete again against another top nation."
Watch Netherlands v Republic of Ireland in World Cup qualifying on Saturday from 7.15pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on the RTÉ News App and on rte.ie/sport. Listen to live commentary on RTÉ Radio 1.
