Jared Payne back in training with Ireland

Payne Ireland coach Joe Schmidt has confirmed that Jared Payne, who missed the defeat to England with a hamstring injury, returned to training on Monday and is expected to take a full part in Tuesday's session at Carton House.

Schmidt explained: “On a good news front Jared Payne looked to train today (Monday) and will train fully tomorrow (Tuesday). He’s hopefully filtering back in rather than going in the opposite direction as we have had in the last two games.”

The Irish coach confirmed that up to a dozen of the match squad from the Six Nations game at Twickenham would be released back to their provinces for Guinness Pro12 action this weekend.

“There will be another opportunity for them (players released) to get game fit because a number of the guys that we did have come back into the squad, even the starting team, they hadn’t really had that much game time, so we felt that we were a couple of runs short.

"It's an opportunity for them to get a little more game time under their belt. Hopefully it'll pay dividends in those last two Six Nations games."

The Ireland squad will reconvene at Carton House on Sunday evening ahead of Saturday week’s Six Nations game against Italy at the Aviva Stadium.