Johnny Sexton was controversially cleared from concussion protocols, having left the field with a head knock last weekend.
He will line up in the No 10 jersey in what flanker Peter O’Mahony said was a boost going into tonight’s test against the All Blacks at Forsyth Barr Stadium.
"There’s no secret Johnny’s obviously one of the best players in the world, one of the best flyhalfs in the world," O’Mahony said.
"You want to be dealing from a full deck. We want to be playing from as full a bill of health as possible.
"There isn’t anyone you’d say you can afford to have out, with regard to having three games in the space of nine or 10 days. He’s hugely important to us, obviously our captain, so that’s where it stands."
O’Mahony added that while he was "far from a medical practitioner", Sexton seemed "in good form" at training.
The 78-test veteran was in the line-up the day Ireland beat the All Blacks in 2018 — one of the team’s three wins over New Zealand in the past six years.
He said to beat them it needed a complete performance and lacking in parts of the game would result in coming up short.
That was evident in last week’s 42-19 loss at Eden Park.
"I think we’ve got to hold on to the ball a bit better at times, be a bit more patient," he said.
"I think we’ve ... got to give ourselves a bit more of a chance with some of the silly penalties we gave away last weekend. Teams like the All Blacks don’t need the access we gave them through the silly penalties we gave away. So denying access there.
"Set piece-wise we lost a handful of lineouts, a couple of scrum penalties, three I think. They’re areas that are access again."
For a team like the All Blacks, "you need to be denying that access".
