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• Former Soca Warriors stalwart Shaka Hislop points to lack of talent, depth in T&T squad as Dwight Yorke's biggest test

  Though Dwight Yorke is committed to throwing his best efforts into his new role as senior Soca Warriors Head coach, former teammate Shaka Hislop believes it is the talent within Trinidad and Tobago’s setup that will ultimately determine the success of his tenure.

  Yorke, the former Manchester United and Soca Warriors striker, was given a mandate by the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) to qualify the Twin Island Republic to the 2026 Fifa World Cup or face the boot and the 53-year-old has declared his readiness to give of his best.

  “Rest assured, I will give 100. I feel very calm, very excited at the same time, but fully aware of the challenge that is lying ahead. There’s lots of hard work to be done,” Yorke told TTFA media interview shortly after arriving in Trinidad and Tobago on Friday.

  “Not just me, the backroom stuff, the players to get where we want to get... obviously, trying to qualify for the World Cup. And yes, along the way, I’m sure they’re going to be some testing times for us. But that’s the challenges that lies ahead. So once we embrace it, once we are fully aware of it, and once we get the support, I fully believe, I’m fully confident that we can get the job done,” he added.

  However, Hislop, while welcoming Yorke’s appointment, knows all too well that coaches coach but the results will ultimately come from how the players perform on match days.

  In fact, Hislop, who along with Yorke represented the Soca Warriors at the 2006 global showpiece, was not shy to admit that the current squad lacks depth and sufficient talent, which he believes represent the toughest aspect of the puzzle at this point. This, as aside from AEK Athens striker Levi Garcia, Yorke’s current crop is made up of mostly lower leagues or home-based players.

  “We’ve kind of stumbled from coach to coach over the last four or five years, probably dating back to Stephen Hart when he was in charge. But I think the TTFA got it right this time. That’s with the greatest respect to our teammate Dennis Lawrence and Angus Eve, who have both been in charge of the team, but results really didn’t go their way,” Hislop shared during a podcast.

  “I think the big challenge for Dwight coming in with this squad is it’s not a very talented squad, if I may say so... certainly, on paper, and results would bear that out. How he’s able to find the right pieces for this puzzle is going to be Dwight’s biggest test,” the ESPN analyst added.

  That said, Hislop also pointed to the significance of match fitness and, as such, urged the TTFA to ensure Yorke and his players consistently engage warm-up games during the November 2024 and March 2025 international windows.

  Trinidad and Tobago currently sit second in Group B on four points, two behind Costa Rica, with St. Kitts and Nevis (three points), Grenada (one point), and the Bahamas (zero point) completing the group. Qualifying action will resume in June 2025.

  “We’ve got some games during the international window as well. We’ve got the November window, which will be Dwight’s first time on the sidelines. So we have opportunity to see the squad, to make adjustments, to try to bring in players before things get very serious in terms of qualifiers,” Hislop noted.

• Ireland ready to respond after 'honest' New Zealand chat, says Hansen

  Mack Hansen has backed Ireland to bounce back from their 23-13 defeat to New Zealand that saw their 19-game home winning streak come to an end.

  The loss also saw Ireland tumble from atop the world rankings to third as the All Blacks repeated their World Cup quarter-final success from last year, and also marked New Zealand's first win on Irish soil since 2016. 

  Ireland had previously won 25 of their 26 home games under Andy Farrell, which was their longest run on home soil, with their latest defeat before last Friday coming against France in 2021 (13-15). 

  While questions have been asked of a team that have been beaten in three of their past five matches, Hansen was adamant that the mood is not dampened ahead of Friday’s visit of Argentina. 

  "People are always very eager to jump on you when you’re down. It’s like in South Africa, nobody gave them a hope after the first Test," said Hansen. 

  “And what happens? They come back and win it. That’s the best thing about this group. The outside noise is outside noise and nobody knows what goes on in here, how hard we work and how resilient we are.

  "People can chat away. The people who know us know, unfortunately, it was one of those weeks [against New Zealand], but we’re ready to bounce back.”

  Ireland's display was littered with errors against the All Blacks, which included 21 handling mistakes, 30 missed tackles and 13 penalties conceded at the Aviva Stadium. 

  But eradicating those mistakes could prove difficult when they face Argentina on Friday, who come into the encounter on the back of a 50-18 thrashing of Italy. 

  ​Ireland, however, have not lost to the Pumas since the 2015 World Cup quarter-final and have beaten them on the three subsequent occasions they have played in Dublin.

  And Hansen is confident his team-mates can respond against Felipe Contepomi's side and continue their impressive run against Argentina. 

  “There weren’t really hard chats, just honest chats,” added Hansen on Monday's debrief. 

  "We came to the conclusion that it wasn’t good enough and also that it just wasn’t us.

  "So this week we’re looking to right a lot of wrongs and no better place to do it then back in the Aviva in front of a home crowd."

• Ireland making no excuses for All Blacks defeat but will assess 'energy levels' before Argentina

  Ireland coach Andy Farrell intends to assess the "energy levels" of his players before picking a team to play Argentina as he seeks to ensure his side can have no excuses in a busy November.

  New Zealand won 23-13 in Dublin on Friday, Ireland's first home defeat in more than three years, and Farrell's side will play three more matches before the end of the month.

  Next up are Argentina next Friday, after which Ireland face Fiji and Australia.

  There may be the temptation to make sweeping changes given the result against the All Blacks and a performance that Ireland captain Caelan Doris acknowledged was "not good enough".

  But Farrell is not rushing into any snap decisions, determined to pick a team that will allow Ireland to compete throughout the coming weeks.

  "It's a tough month, four back-to-back games on the trot, so we will see what the energy levels are like," Farrell said.

  "A lot of guys put a good shift in considering their training time, never mind game time, so we'll see how bodies are when we're back in and see what the feeling is like."

  Regardless, Farrell will not allow the schedule to be used as mitigation this month, adding: "We've always prided ourselves on getting up to speed and being as good as we possibly can be first game up, because that is the cards we are dealt with.

  "It doesn't matter if you have had three training sessions and 12 minutes of games or seven consecutive games and 50 training sessions. You try to be your best, and we weren't [against New Zealand]."