Sam Monaghan set to return as Ireland 'turn the page' following England defeat

Ireland co-captain Sam Monaghan has declared herself fit and available for Ireland's final Guinness Women's Six Nations game against Scotland on Saturday (live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player).

The lock misses out on last week's heavy defeat to England at Twickenham, which was the second game she's had to sit out over the course of the championship.

Monaghan missed out on the tournament opener away to France last month, as she followed the return to play protocols for concussion.

But she says last Saturday's absence was unrelated to that head injury.

"No, it was just around being out for a while and it is taking a bit longer to recover so just hitting my markers in training," she said.

"I'm putting my hand up [for selection this week]. I have hit my markers this week, I believe. I had a good training session this morning."

Ireland's 88-10 defeat to England was just one point short of a record loss, which sees them drop to fifth in the table with one game to play.

The target of a third place - and with it World Cup qualification - is still very much within Ireland's sights though. To achieve that they would need to beat Scotland and overturn a small points differential on Italy.

"We have turned the page and our main priority now is Saturday and focusing on qualifying for the World Cup by doing a job on Scotland.

"They got the better of us last year but we are a different team now and we still have that momentum coming off the back of the Wales win. We have parked it [the defeat to England]. We've gone into preview mode now.

"It is never easy. This team cares. We were hurting after that game, as anyone would be, but this is where we have to dust ourselves off.

"All the players have to put an arm around another player and say this has