WILLIAM Porterfield joined up with the Ireland squad in Holland yesterday, the captain the first of the six county professionals to arrive for Sunday’s big World Cup qualifier against the Dutch in Amsterdam.

The others fly in this morning to give National coach Phil Simmons a full-strength squad to choose from and all are expected to take their place for the first of two games where victories will confirm Ireland’s place at the next ICC World Cup finals, in 2015.

Flying in the opposite direction, to return to their clubs, are John Anderson, Andrew Balbirnie, Stuart Poynter, Stuart Thompson and Phil Eaglestone, but don’t under-estimate the achievement of the ‘second-string’ team getting Ireland to their fourth Intercontinental Cup final.

Although the World Cup finals – and the World Twenty20 – are Ireland’s only chance of competing alongside the sport’s elite, long-term the Intercontinental Cup is their route to the top. Cricket Ireland’s vision is to achieve Test status by 2020 and, for the moment, the I-Cup is Ireland’s only first-class competition.

That they have reached the December decider, against Afghanistan or Namibia, with their full squad available for only two of the six games, shows just how far ahead they are of their fellow Associates. Indeed, they have actually qualified for the final with a game to spare – they have still to play Scotland at Clontarf in September – and it is this strength in depth which seems sure to keep them out in front for years to come.

Kevin O’Brien, who leads the side in the absence of Warwickshire professional Porterfield, was delighted by the three-day win in Deventer.

“It’s our fourth I-Cup final in five years, and another great performance. We’ve been very consistent in this tournament for the last year and a half and it’s great to be in another final, something to look forward to in December. It’s great for Phil to see the younger players coming through and despite missing five-six players we won pretty comfortably,” said O’Brien.

Although it was George Dockrell, the one county professional involved, who ultimately won the game with nine wickets on a turning pitch, it was John Anderson, in only his sixth game for Ireland, whose first innings century laid the platform for the victory.

“It was a great innings by Johnno, he has been in great nick for Merrion and Leinster all year. He wants to bat as long as he can, has great patience and knows what to leave and what to play. You saw a fantastic innings on a difficult wicket. Then John Mooney came in and played aggressively and got us up to a very good score on the first day,” added the acting captain.

“We knew it would be difficult to score on that pitch later in the game which is why we batted first. And when you have someone like George who you can throw the ball to and know he will turn one or two balls every over, we weren’t worried. We knew we had the best spinner in the game.

“Now with the guys coming in from England they will be coming into a squad high in confidence and we have a massive chance to finish what we have come to do. We have done a third of the job and we’ve two big games coming up.”