Ireland have received a boost ahead of Sunday's Guinness Women's Six Nations meeting with Italy (live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player), with Sam Monaghan on course to return from injury.
The Gloucester-Hartpury second row missed out on the opening defeat to France on Saturday as she followed the return to play protocols for a concussion, but defence coach Declan Danaher has declared the co-captain fully fit for Sunday's game at the RDS.
"Sam's good to go, so she's passed all her relevant protocols she's needed to do," he said.
"She's training and it's good to be working with her. She's an important part of our team in terms of lineout, so she's good to go."
Ruth Campbell is the only injury the Ireland management are dealing with ahead of this week's game, with the lock currently sidelined with a wrist injury.
Danaher, who joined as defence coach this season after almost 25 years as a player and coach with London Irish, has come in for praise off the back of Saturday's opening game against the French.
While Ireland gave up five tries in a 38-17 defeat, there were noticeable improvements in physicality and organisation in defence.
However, the former Ireland U19 international (below) says there's a lot of scope for improvement ahead of Sunday's visit of Italy.
"The positives are, for me, the effort and workrate and the intent we showed.
"Then from a review point of view, we've had a good look at ourselves, what we can control better, and we spoke with the girls around things like stopping driving tries, not allowing teams get that field position, but also little things around the system; when you come under pressure where you're meant to be, what you can do to stop it.
"There's been come good discussions with forwards and backs but that would be one area we can challenge ourselves to be better.
"Italy are going to come with a [lineout] drive as well, so we have to be ready for that.
"I'm only here six or seven weeks, I've seen a massive step up from the first week I was here and getting to meet the girls. They were obviously out playing in the Celtic League, and getting them into camp.
"I can see the progress that's happening. You can see it at training, we want and Scott [head coach Scott Bemand] wants training to be incredibly competitive. We know if we can compete at training and driving the standards there, you probably then start to see performances like you did at the weekend," he added.
Ireland face an altogether different challenge on Sunday when Italy come to town.
The Italians were defeated 48-0 by England last weekend, although Giovanni Raineri's side did hold the Red Roses scoreless for the opening 30 minutes in Parma.
After showing signs of improvements in France, there will now be a greater expectation for Ireland to deliver a performance that can end their six-game losing streak in the Six Nations.
And Danaher says he's optimistic about the potential in the squad.
"You can see it as a glass full or a glass half empty but there's still a long way to go. Isn't that the nice thing? You're not at the end, you can see that, and if it is, we continue to grow all of our game.
"It's not just about defence, if the attack comes better, it takes pressure off the attack and set-piece. It's all marrying up the different areas so that we get an all-round performance that you can put out at the weekend and you're proud of.
"I have had a real buy-in from the group and I have made a real effort to get to know them individually as well, so you get to have those interactions and maybe then they start to potentially care about an important area, but one that is only a part of the overall game.
"I take as much joy in what we do in the attacking game. I would love for us to be all-round at the weekend."
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