Cool hand Luke happy to be back

Luke Fitzgerald is thrilled to be back playing for Ireland after fighting back from a career threatening injury to the lateral collateral ligament of his left knee while playing against Australia last year.

It’s been a long road back for the elusive winger, but Fitzgerald is feeling fresh and primed to face South Africa.

“I’ve been picturing this moment for about 11 months so I’m really excited about it,” he said.

“I’ve gotten a load of game time with Leinster. I’m probably one of those guys that’s played the most there so I feel like I’m ready to go and I’m feeling really fit.

“I’m just really excited about the weekend. It’s been almost a year since I’ve been able to pull on the jersey and every time you put in on it’s just a real honour,” he said.

Schalk Burger, who infamously eye-gouged Fitzgerald in the opening minutes of the second Lions test in 2009, is missing for the Boks at the weekend. Burger received a very lenient ban for the incident, but the Leinster flyer holds no grudges.

“He’s a pretty physical player so I try to avoid him - I think its been dealt with and it’s almost two years ago so well forgotten about,” he said.

The South Africans will field a giant pack against Ireland, but Fitzgerald insists the visitors should not be taken too lightly out wide.

“From my perspective, the outside backs have a lot of pace out there … so it’s going to be a big challenge for me and the rest of the boys."

Irish referee Alain Rolland incurred serious criticism for his interpretation of the new law changes in last weekend’s Bledisloe Cup game between Australia and New Zealand and Fitzgerald is intrigued to see how the new rule changes will affect the game.

“It’ll be interesting to see how it goes. I heard some of the commentators in the Australia New Zealand game talking about the referee and maybe some of the interpretations up here (Northern Hemisphere) being slightly different.

“I can’t see how it would be - everything’s standardised now. I think we’ve been playing the system for a few months and everyone’s pretty comfortable with it so it’s not going to be an excuse from our perspective anyway.”