Kidney makes no changes for Italy game

Ireland have named an unchanged starting XV for Saturday's RBS 6 Nations clash with Italy at the Aviva Stadium.

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

Keith Earls is again named at outside-centre with Fergus McFadden on the bench in the only change from Ireland's opening day defeat to Wales.

Ireland will play four games in a row over the next four weeks with the re-arranged France game due to take place on 4 March.

The fixture launches a gruelling schedule of four games in as many weeks as Ireland suffer the consequences of the aborted showdown at the Stade de France 10 days ago.

Once Italy have been negotiated, they must relocate to Paris on March 4 before preparing for a six-day turnaround to face Scotland. The championship concludes against England at Twickenham on March 17.

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

"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 have lost their last three matches at the Aviva Stadium but have never succumbed to Italy in the Six Nations.

However, last season they required a last-gasp drop-goal from Ronan O'Gara to escape the Stadio Flaminio with a 13-11 victory.

Italy have lost their opening two matches of the championship, away to France and at home to England.

Ireland XV to play Italy in the RBS 6 Nations at 1.30pm on Saturday 25 February:

15 Rob Kearney 14 Tommy Bowe 13 Keith Earls 12 Gordon D'Arcy 11 Andrew Trimble 10 Jonathan Sexton 9 Conor Murray 1 Cian Healy 2 Rory Best 3 Mike Ross 4 Donncha O'Callaghan 5 Paul O'Connell 6 Stephen Ferris 7 Sean O'Brien 8 Jamie Heaslip

Replacements: 16 Sean Cronin 17 Tom Court 18 Donnacha Ryan 19 Peter O'Mahony 20 Eoin Reddan 21 Ronan O'Gara 22 Fergus McFadden