D'Arcy wants a Dublin fortress

Gordon D'Arcy believes Ireland must turn the Aviva Stadium into a fortress if they're to claim a first Six  Nations crown since 2009.

After last weekend's proposed match in France was postponed, Ireland remain without a point in the competition having suffered a narrow opening defeat to Wales in Dublin.

That defeat means Ireland have won just three of their nine matches at the Aviva Stadium since returning to Lansdowne Road in 2010, following a brief spell at Croke Park.

And D'Arcy believes Ireland must add to their victories over Samoa, Argentina and England in Dublin when they face Italy next weekend.

"We should be winning our home games," D'Arcy told Sportsbeat. "Regardless of who we are playing, it's a home game and we should be winning those.

"The fallout from the Wales game was maybe justified by the exit from the World Cup, the fact that it was our first game at home and the amount of games we lost at the Aviva last year.

"I just think we need to be more consistent. We beat Australia in the World Cup, we beat England when they were going for a Grand Slam and then we lost to Wales in the first game of the Six Nations.

"We're as good as all of the top teams, we just need to be more consistent. We need to believe that we are a top-four team and we need to be doing that on a more consistent basis."

Meanwhile, Ireland head coach Declan Kidney has moved to dismiss fears Jonny Sexton will not be fit to face the Azzurri.

The Leinster flyhalf missed training on Thursday having tweaked a thigh muscle last Friday but Kidney is unperturbed.

"Jonny could have played last Saturday, but one of the benefits of this break is that it's given him a couple of extra days to recover," he said.

"It was prudent to leave him out of training [on Thursday] so that he could get it fully right. If he needed to he could gave trained."