IT WAS A dramatic end to a largely frustrating 90 minutes last March.

Ireland U21s had toiled to no avail for much of the match. However, a last-gasp Shaun Donnellan goal they needed secured them a 1-0 stoppage-time win over Azerbaijan and kept their Euro qualification hopes on track.

An ecstatic Declan Rice, who impressed in midfield, kissed his badge in celebration.

After the game, the assembled media were eager to chat to the player, who had recently made his senior debut against Turkey. He agreed to talk on one condition — he was not to be asked any questions about his allegiance to Ireland and the possibility of declaring for England.

It seemed a reasonable request at the time, as this topic felt like old news anyway. Just a couple of days previously, Rice had attended the FAI awards, where he was named U19 International Player of the Year, and had subsequently been bombarded with questions about his dual nationality.

“I’m here now. I’ve just picked up the award and I’m very privileged,” he said.

“I’ve been playing with Ireland since U16 level, my mindset is fully on playing with Ireland.”

The matter, it seemed, was closed. Roy Keane certainly appeared to think so. Responding to West Ham co-owner David Gold’s comment that the club wanted to turn the starlet “into a strong England defender,” the assistant boss said: “It’s going to be pretty difficult if he’s Irish.

“And he is Irish. He plays for Ireland. Where else would he want to go, if you had a choice, Ireland or England? It’s pretty straightforward, isn’t it? Ireland.”

Martin O’Neill, however, has always been a little more cautious in this regard. After naming Rice in his first squad, he said:

“I would never take anything for granted. In my experience here, I’m talking about [Jack] Grealish for instance, who declared for England. I absolutely accept that.

“When you’re talking about Declan, this is a friendly game and he still has that opportunity [to declare for England] and I wouldn’t presume anything at all until someone says: ‘This is what I want to do.’”

Now that the London-born star has opted out of Ireland’s squad for their first competitive game since his initial call-up, while O’Neill was not ruling out the possibility of an eventual return, it seems hard to see a way back for the youngster into the Ireland set-up, with reports that the player is in talks with England confirmed by the manager.

The West Ham player is already getting plenty of stick for this decision. Kevin Kilbane — who himself was born in England but always said he felt more Irish and turned down a chance to play for the Three Lions at youth level — tweeted: “I’d rather be ranked 150th in the world and never qualify again than have someone who has played, but needs time to THINK whether they should play for us again. Well done to MON for transparency.”

It is easy to sympathise with Kilbane’s viewpoint, but there are undoubtedly much more harsh criticisms in store for the youngster from some less high-profile people across social media. His account is protected now, but a fair proportion of the 30.4k people who follow him are likely to be Ireland fans, who may not all opt to think before they tweet the kind of insensitive abuse that the likes of Jack Grealish and others have received in the past.

So before people pile on, it’s important to remember amid all the controversy that Rice is 19 years old.

Has he been badly advised? Quite possibly. If there was ever any doubt about his international allegiance, then surely he should have refrained from lining out for the Boys in Green, kissing badges and heavily suggesting he was in it for the long haul.

That recent friendly against France, in particular, was a big game. By accepting the call-up and completing 90 minutes, he was taking that opportunity away from another Ireland player. Darragh Lenihan, for instance, who like Rice can play defence or midfield, was an unused sub on the night in Paris, but would certainly have benefited from game time.

Yet of course, everyone makes mistakes and has moments of indecision, particularly when they are teenagers — the difference with Rice is that he is scrutinised by millions.

There is also the possibility that up until recently, the teenager was absolutely certain about playing for Ireland and he really did intend to do so.

However, stripping away emotion from the situation, and looking at it from a purely cold and objective perspective, Rice stands to gain much more by playing for England.

It seems unlikely that Ireland will get to a World Cup semi-final over the course of Rice’s career, as England did in the summer, while it is also potentially damaging to the player’s club career and earning power if he chooses to stick with the Boys in Green — the latter factor, in particular, may grate with many fans, but it is impossible to ignore or dismiss its potential significance.

If Rice is a high-profile England international, then Manuel Pellegrini probably thinks twice about that decision to hook him at half-time during the Hammers’ recent comprehensive opening-day defeat to Liverpool, such are the politics of the Premier League.

And in terms of making the decision from a financial perspective, there is no contest.

In Access All Areas, a 2015 book by The Secret Footballer, the author speaks to a contact in Nike about a player deliberating over choosing to represent England or Ireland at international level. “If he plays once for England he’ll make a million quid from us as a minimum; if he plays a hundred times for Ireland, we’re not interested, I’m afraid,” the contact says.

The author, who is the agent of the player in question, adds.

He shouldn’t play for Ireland. He is too good. I explain this to the kid and the dad, and tell them that my plan is to use Ireland to flush out England, for whom the boy really wants to play. I think that’s fair to Ireland. To England. And to the kid. Let him make his choice when he sees what choices there are.

“I explain that my friend, an old coach of mine, heads up talent for England, and it will only take one phone call. I haven’t made that call yet because the kid really needs to have played more games for his team rather than the 10 or so he has under his belt. However, our hand has now been forced, so I’ll make the call. In the meantime, I’ll tell Ireland, ‘Thanks, but no thanks.’ ‘But,’ says the dad, ‘Ireland are on the table today.’”

So while there are many examples of English-born players who didn’t need to think twice about representing Ireland and in some cases, preferred to do so, it would also be naive to believe that youngsters are immune from using international football simply as a means of enhancing their club career rather than choosing to represent country for purely emotional reasons.

These rules, facilitating a switch, were only implemented by Fifa in 2004. Before then, junior players could not change allegiance, meaning for example Tim Cahill was initially not allowed to play for the country of his birth, Australia, having represented Samoa at U20 level as a 14-year-old. But just as that decision on the former Millwall man seemed unduly harsh, it has gone from one extreme to the other, with players playing regularly at underage level and even in non-competitive senior matches, before performing a u-turn when the competitive games come around.

With the current guidelines that are in place, it is more or less impossible to stop this phenomenon from occurring and enabling the more cynical people involved to exploit the system.

Amid the lure of bigger footballing nations, from an Irish perspective, fans can only hope that idealistic notions such as loyalty and pride trump the more pragmatic concerns that such decisions entails.

Otherwise, situations where players like Grealish and Rice think twice about representing Ireland and other smaller nations will surely become increasingly commonplace.

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