Ireland primed for Armenia challenge in Uefa Nations League opener

Stephen Kenny is hoping that his side hit the ground running as they open their Nations League campain against Armenia on Saturday.

Kenny named a 27-strong squad for the four-game schedule and will be heartened by the fact that all have arrived into Dublin fit and ready for the opening game.

In fact, the squad have already taken part in a behind-closed-doors encounter with Jim Crawford's Under-21 side on Sunday with most players playing at least 30 minutes throughout.

A worthwhile exercise according to the manager and one designed to bring back the matchday intensity to many of his players who are lacking game time with several players’ seasons being completed a few weeks’ ago.

In the meantime, those players were given a training plan to follow in their own time, while others who have only finished in the last week were later arrivals into camp.

"It was a good work-out," said Kenny, speaking at the post training press conference at Abbotstown on Monday afternoon. "It was two thirty minutes. We made nine changes at half-time. I think it finished 2-1 but the goals weren’t that relevant.

"Some players needed some match fitness. It was to give them a little focus, they would have known a couple of weeks ago they would be playing a game on the second day so it was up to them to be up to speed.

"We didn’t have time to bring people in and get them ready for a training game, we needed them to hit the ground running. That was dependent on them doing work leading into here.

"It was a good work-out, the Under-21s played well. We made a lot of changes because the defenders were late in - Nathan Collins, Seamus Coleman, John Egan - not late in, but in yesterday as they only finished a week ago.

"In the second half of the game we had a lot of