Wednesday 11 June 2014 06:02, UK
Ireland winger Simon Zebo is determined to cement his place in the team after returning to international duty for the first time in a year.
The 24-year-old, who missed out on this year's 6 Nations triumph after suffering a foot injury, returned to the side for the 29-17 victory over Argentina last weekend.
And the Munster player is hopeful he can maintain his fitness for the challenges ahead, including the defence of the RBS 6 Nations and the World Cup.
"It's always a pleasure and an honour to get to wear the green jersey and I was just grateful that I had got the chance to get back and play," Zebo said.
"It's been a while through injury and other things that I've been out. To come back and get in the shirt and get a win as well has been special.
"It's always going to be tough with the competition we have. There are some world-class operators in the back-three department for us and we're blessed to have that.
"Competition drives players on to perform even better so it's better for the squad as a whole.
"Hopefully the strong competition drives me on and drives all our other players on, and come the World Cup and the Six Nations we'll have a very, very strong squad, plenty of strength in depth to operate with."
Zebo won his seventh cap against the Pumas at the weekend and was pleased with how the match went for him.
He said: "I was relatively happy. It's been a couple of weeks since I've last played and I was a little rusty in a couple of areas but generally happy with the few touches I had.
"The most important thing was to get the win and hopefully now we can do that again against Argentina, but we know it will be very tough.
"We are looking forward to and it should be good."
Ireland face Argentina on Saturday in the second Test in Tucuman.
