Morocco a precious opportunity to catch Vera Pauw's eye

Success has many fathers... grannies and grandads.

Once the Republic of Ireland reached the Women's World Cup, it seemed to jog a few players' memories when it comes to their ancestry.

"It's funny, when you qualify, suddenly there is a lot of players with Irish backgrounds," said Vera Pauw after October's group draw that pitted the Girls in Green against Australia, Canada and Nigeria.

"They email you and they weren't emailing you before you qualified. But there are players that we’re really looking into."

It was an interesting remark from Pauw, and one that may have caused some of her regular squad members to get a bit twitchy.

Is someone going to gatecrash the party?

Ireland are permitted to bring 23 squad players Down Under - plus four 'training players'. There will be tough decisions and inevitable disappointments.

Of course, Pauw is fully entitled to bring in anyone she likes, but she'll be conscious of disrupting the spirit and camaraderie within her closeknit bunch of "tigers".

"There are players abroad that are now showing up and we really have to look into, but they must have a very tight connection with Ireland," Pauw added.

"The players that we have now on the sheet that we are going to look at already have an Irish passport. They have a passport but are playing abroad. We are looking into that."

So we may well see a fresh face or two being drafted into the Ireland set-up between now and the summer - and that makes tomorrow's friendly against Morocco all the more important, for everyone involved.

Let's start with the newbies.

Young Shelbourne goalkeeper Katie Keane and Peamount United midfielder Erin McLaughlin have both received maiden senior call-ups.

Keane is 16 years old, so this is really just a taste of senior