Domenech can only 'mess up' France - Dunne

Dublin: Richard Dunne has described Raymond Domenech as a hapless figure who is capable only of "messing up" the French talent at his disposal, as he suggested that the Republic of Ireland sensed weakness in their World Cup playoff opponents.

Domenech brings his star-studded France squad to Dublin on Saturday night for the first leg of the eagerly awaited tie and the manager has creative players with the capacity to intimidate, among them Thierry Henry, Nicolas Anelka and Karim Benzema. Domenech will be without arguably his most intimidating, the Bayern Munich forward Franck Ribry, who has a knee injury, but France remain the favourites to progress.

Dunne, however, believes Ireland have been fashioned by the manager, Giovanni Trapattoni, into a team who are considerably more than the sum of their basic parts. The play-off has been advertised in some quarters as being a clash between the manager who has won it all against the one who has won nothing.

"Every time a tournament comes round, they [France] have all these world-class players and then a man who seems intent on messing them up," he said. "Over the last World Cups and European Championships, things have not run smoothly for France; they've always got through, but maybe it's time that we put a stop to that. And we know that if we can get in front, they probably have not got the man at the top to pull them back around," Dunne said.

"It [Domenech's charge] could be a weakness or it could be a big smokescreen; France have played really well in their last few games. But if we can get on top of them and try to turn the game into a battle, we feel we have the stronger personalities."

Domenech is far from being the most popular figure in French sport and when he attended the Paris Masters tennis tournament with some of his players on Monday, he was jeered by a section of the crowd.