THE IRISH team departed for the World Under-20 Championships in Malaysia last night with manager Brian Kerr making few predictions about how his team will fare in the heat of Alor Setar, but plenty about the long-term prospects of his 18-strong squad.

Ireland play Ghana, the USA and China over five days next week and Kerr is cautious about how his team will shape up in what looks to be one of the toughest groups of the competition.

The former St Patrick's Athletic manager feels, however, that the experience of playing at this level of under-age competition will help members of his panel to make a name for themselves both at club and senior international levels.

In the past, no player who represented Ireland at, this, level in major championship finals has gone on to break into the senior international squad. However Kerr believes that under Mick McCarthy the opportunities will be there for those who are willing and able to take them.

"Under Charlton, a lot of the time it was a question of whether it was going to be someone old or someone very old playing in the national team. That's changed know and when the lads in this team can see David Connolly, Ian Harte, Shay Given, Richard Dunne and Gareth Farrelly all figuring in Mick's plans, they know that the gap's not all that great."

Kerr feels that several of the players who have come out of Ireland's under-age teams might have progressed if they had been even appearances in the senior side at the right time by Charlton. The fact that Connolly, Given and Farrelly have all become transfer targets, despite failing to establish themselves as regulars at club level, is, he feels, evidence of what can be achieved.

"Sometimes you get a break at club level and it means you become an international player and sometimes, like David Connolly, you get the break at international level.

"Because he has done well in a few internationals, he has bigger clubs interested in him, which will probably mean that he gets the opportunity to become a better player, which, in turn, is good for us.

Ironically, Connolly has actually done so well at senior level that, along with Ian Harte, he has been deemed to be off limits to Kerr by McCarthy, who wants the pair to rest over the summer before returning to action in the World Cup qualifying campaign.

Nevertheless, Kerr feels that his side possess enough quality to make an impact on these world finals, even if many of the strengths which he credits his players with have a rather Charltonesque ring to them.

"They're well organised, have a lot of fighting spirit, they're well motivated, all of which are qualities that teams from this part of the world have to possess to compensate for the general lack of technique and resources that other countries tend to possess.

"Within that, though, we'll be playing a very different style of football to what has been associated with the senior Irish side under Jack."

Whether they will be able to play it well enough to thrive in their three group matches remains to be seen and even Kerr admits that he knows too little about the other teams to make a serious assessment of their prospects.

Third place in the group could, however, be good enough to see the Irish through to the knockout stages and, white the most recent recruit to the Irish management team clearly has a list of long-term objectives to keep him busy over the next couple of years, that would doubtless do him for a start.