Nov 14,2024
Heimir Hallgrimsson has been attempting to build confidence in the Ireland team since taking over during the summer, and it appears that he has anointed a captain in his own image to keep things positive on the pitch.
Long-term skipper Seamus Coleman is once again ruled out through injury, which means that the armband will pass to Nathan Collins for the games against Finland and England.
Collins has played every minute of Hallgrimsson's short tenure and will marshal the centre of defence for this week’s double-header, most likely alongside Liam Scales, who has impressed after failing to see any action in the September fixtures.
The centre-half is one of the few Premier League starters in the Ireland squad, so it is no surprise that the manager opted for one of the higher profile players to lead on the pitch, while trying to build a consistent spine of core players to take into the World Cup campaign.
The towering defender has already amassed 24 caps for the national side, although there has been more lows than highs for the 23-year-old, who previously admitted that he was sick of losing games in an Ireland shirt.
Likewise, Collins has had some individual moments throughout his short international career, having scored two goals, a fine individual effort against Ukraine in Poland as well as scoring in the Euro 2024 qualifying defeat away to Greece.
On the flip side, Collins made a grave error in the first game against Helsinki, which handed the hosts an early lead, however, he helped the side battle back to take the three points to give the new manager his first win at the third time of asking.
Hallgrimsson said after that game that the error was spoken about and forgotten about at the half-time break, while Collins has revealed how he handled the moment, and was full of praise for his team-mates, who rallied round to ensure that it was not the main topic of conversation after the game.
"You just have to bounce back really," said Collins, when asked about the incident, which led to the Finland opening goal.
"I think I’ve made enough mistakes in my career already that I know I have to bounce back and I thought I did alright.
"I think mentally, probably a year or two years earlier I would have been a bit lost after that. It would have affected me badly.
"I think I’m proud of how I reacted, how I got on with it and moved on, just went back to basics, won my little duels, got my little passes, did those things right and got myself back in the game.
"Of course it’s annoying, it affects you, with the group we have here, I know they’ll fight for me, they’ll look after me, and they did."
Collins positive approach to the game is something that he said has not changed since he turned professional and made his breakthrough at Stoke City, while his leadership qualities were also evident from a young age, taking the armband as a teenager with the Potters.
And now as Ireland captain, the genial Ireland defender does not believe that he has to change his game on the basis of wearing an armband, and he intends to continue in the same vein in whatever role he is handed by Hallgrimsson.
"The way I've always seen myself, is that the way I play is the way I’ll always play, and I’ll always try to be a leader," said Collins, when asked if he needed to shed the Mr Nice Guy image and be more of a leader around the camp.
"Nathan Jones made me captain at Stoke when I was 18 for the way I was, and I don’t think I’ve changed much on a mental level, probably physically a bit.
"I don’t think my style will ever change because there’s an armband on my arm. I think I’ll always be the same player, if I have it or if I don’t.
"I’ll always try to be positive and encourage, talk to people, I’ll always be that person. I think, maybe, he’s seen that in me, so why would I change something that I can already do?"
And while Collins is embracing life under the new manager, he also believes that the team is moving up the levels with every international window and is hoping that things prove positive in this week’s games to help build momentum towards next year’s World Cup qualifiers.
"I think it is another building block," he said, when asked if he had noted a change of atmosphere within the national team set-up.
"The first camp wasn’t our best. Last camp you saw what we can do and improvements we have made.
"This camp again I think we have gone up another level and everyone has bought into it even more. We’re looking forward to it. It is another two good games for us.
"Yeah, it would be great," he added, when asked about going into the March games on a high.
"I think that's what our target is, really, in this camp, again to build on what we've been doing, but then to go in with that winning feeling and knowing that we can go an beat anybody.
"I think that would be a great thing for us going into March."
Collins has recently taken up with his brother’s ex-partner – defensively speaking that is – as the aforementioned Scales used to play in a central pairing alongside elder sibling Josh at UCD, and as a result, there was an immediate connection.
"I‘ve watched Scalesy play since I was 14," said Collins. "He played centre-back at UCD with my brother so I've always seen how good he was.
"Going through the League of Ireland, getting the move, he always had the qualities of a top player. It’s no surprise.
"He’s been very patient. He’s a credit to himself, how nice he is, a top fella all round. He deserves this and he’s taking it be scruff of the neck.
"I know he’s there. I know I can give him the ball, I know he’ll win his headers. It makes my life easier when someone like that is playing beside me.
"I think my brother was a bit better," he laughed. "[Scales was] aggressive, good on the ball, his hair as well. You’ll always remember that."
And as for the malaise of wearing the green jersey? Collins admitted that the win in Helsinki helped matters,
"Not as sick of it, I guess," said Collins. "We won the game. I guess the Finland game, it brought a lot for us, you can see it again. We probably didn’t start the greatest in Greece but then you could see second half there was belief that we could go and win the game.
"I think we’ve been struggling for that belief that we could go win games lately, especially to come from behind away to Finland, brought something different into the team.
"Greece game, we weren’t at our best first half, but we did create a lot of problems for them, we defended really well as a unit, and then we had a right go at the end.
"Unfortunately, it didn’t come to anything, again it’s a lot to build on, but there’s a lot of belief in there now, it’s a different feeling that we haven’t had in a while.
"So I think to bring that into this camp, it’s going to be good, hopefully."
