U17/19: McCaffrey appointed as full-time boss

The 44-year-old took over the position last January as Brian Kerr assumed the senior managerial role, and almost guided last season's U19s to the European U19 finals. He has already seen this season's squad easily through to the second phase of the qualifiers, and was selected out of thirty candidates to take on the position.

He was interviewed for the role by Brian Kerr, the FAI's Technical Director Packie Bonner and CEO Fran Rooney. Afterwards, Monaghan-based McCaffrey proclaimed that 'this job isn't a stepping stone onto something else. It's the pinnacle for me.'

'It's a great honour and I think I'm well equipped to do a good job. Some players can go into management and have respect immediately but that will only last two or three weeks unless they have man management skills and can coach,' he added.

'I see my job as player identification and player development. We need to be developing players from 12 and not losing them to other sports. The Technical Development Plan will make it clear what we've got to do there.'

McCaffrey's work begins next week with a fixture against France in Alencon.