Ireland captain Paul O'Connell admits his team are growing impatient to nudge their Six Nations back on track against Italy on Saturday.

O'Connell: Says break could be a benefit

The Irish have been inactive since February 5, when they lost 23-21 to Wales, following the postponement of their showdown with France 10 days ago.

Freezing conditions in Paris forced the match to be rescheduled for March 4, confronting Ireland with a gruelling schedule of four games in as many weeks.

Coach Declan Kidney has named an unchanged XV for Italy and O'Connell revealed they are eager to resume their campaign, though accepts the break will have been of some benefit.

"When you lose a game you like to get straight back out there and get it out of your system," the 32-year-old said.

"It's been frustrating carrying that around, but then some guys have had time to recover from bumps and bruises.

"We've just got on with what's happened because there's not much we can do about it. If you complain, the only people it will affect are you.

"Some guys with knocks have benefited from it, but a few others would have liked more game time under their belts.

"We've come into camp fresh this week and that's the positive that's come of it.

"We have four games in a row now and some guys like that, others aren't so fussed."

Ireland's two meetings with Italy last year ended in victory, but were poles apart in the way they unfolded.

A highly-impressive 36-6 triumph at last autumn's World Cup booked their place in the quarter-finals and there are only two changes to that side with fly-half Jonathan Sexton and winger Andrew Trimble the new arrivals.

But in February they required a last-gasp drop-goal from Ronan O'Gara to escape the Stadio Flaminio with a nerve-jangling 13-11 win.

New coach Jacques Brunel is attempting to introduce a more rounded game in response to past failings, but O'Connell insists the pack remains Italy's greatest strength.

"Italy are a very tough, physical side and I'm sure there will be a lot of sore bodies after the game," said the Lions skipper.

"It's probably the most physical game of the tournament. They have an excellent maul, scrum and are very good around the fringes.

"They are keeping the ball in hand a bit more and are being more expansive, but they're still really tough up front.

"They've attacked the short side a little more and have looked a very good team over the last two games, despite losing to France and England."

Sexton has made a full recovery from the thigh muscle injury sustained before the aborted match against France and starts at fly-half.

"We were tempted to make changes to the team, we had a long discussion about it," Kidney said.

"There were a few things to consider as a couple of lads will be playing only their second game in five weeks.

"You can talk about over-exposing players, but you can under-expose them to.

"But this team was good enough to play France so it's good enough to play against Italy as well.

"We need to approach this game by game, rather than as a block of four fixtures, and that's what we're doing."

Ireland team: R Kearney (Leinster); T Bowe (Ospreys), K Earls (Munster), G D'Arcy (Leinster), A Trimble (Ulster); J Sexton (Leinster), C Murray (Munster); C Healy (Leinster), R Best (Ulster), M Ross (Leinster), D O'Callaghan (Munster), P O'Connell (Munster, capt), S Ferris (Ulster), S O'Brien (Leinster), J Heaslip (Leinster).

Replacements: S Cronin (Leinster), T Court (Ulster), D Ryan (Munster), P O'Mahony (Munster), E Reddan (Leinster), R O'Gara (Munster), F McFadden (Leinster).