RTE were on the ball in quickly stealing a few words with Austria captain and commentators' nightmare Julian Baumgartlinger this evening.
They know as well as the rest of us that the genre 'foreigners stay stuff about Ireland' is absolute box office in this country.
His Bayer Leverkusen side had just beaten Spurs 1-0 and Julian appeared momentarily surprised to be fielding questions about the Republic of Ireland football team.
But he handled it like a pro. Too much of a pro, to be honest. In many ways, he said all the right things even if they're the things we've been used to hearing.
Here, we turn once more to our old friend, Mr. Hans Foreigner.
Hans is symbolic of every bespectacled international coach who has ever been asked his views of the Irish football team by our press corps.
Looking like he'd rather be doing most anything else, Hans lets out a sigh, shifts in his seat and offers up a few platitudes for the benefit of his hosts.
While intending to complement the natives, he ends up coming off both patronising and sniffily dismissive.
"Very strong, physical... good in the air... lots of long balls... never giving up... will be difficult to deal with..."
It is the type of analysis which cause the hearts of our "true football men" to sink. They curse Jackie Charlton and Giovanni Trapattoni for lumbering us with this reputation.
Judged on the Hans Foreigner scale, Julian's comments tonight were entirely acceptable.
Even if he did hit the physical button. As much our pre-Charlton era native purists may resent it, it's hard to quibble with the judgement.
"We are also looking forward to it. Becuase it is going to be really important for us in the group. Especially after our last loss in Serbia, we really need a few points. We know Ireland is really strong. We saw them in the Euros and also in the other qualifying games. We expect also a really physical team, a good team, a passionate team.
