Best looking to put All Blacks defeat behind him

Rory Best says the Irish squad are ready to put the heart-breaking loss to New Zealand firmly behind them over the next two months.

Joe Schmidt's side open their RBS Six Nations account this Sunday against Scotland at the Aviva Stadium.

It will be the first match the Irish will play since that day in November, when leading after 80 minutes, they threw away what would have been a famous win in the final moments.

Apart from the result, the Ulster hooker has other mixed feelings about that game.

He scored one of those great first-half tries, helping Ireland create a healthy lead with the crowd at the Aviva going mental at what they were witnessing.

However, ecstasy turned to agony later in the half when Best broke his arm and was out for the remainder of the year and missed back-to-back Heineken Cup games against Treviso.

Speaking to media at Carton House ahead of the Six Nations opener, Best insists the negatives from that game need to be put to bed.

He said: "We talked about it in the Christmas camp, we looked at the last three minutes of that game where we lost it, and we looked at the positives where we built the lead, followed by the negatives that allowed them to come back at us.

"As a bare minimum we need to reproduce the same positives we had in that game and try to better them, then with the negatives, we need to eradicate them."

Best is no stranger to injury, in 2012 he suffered a pretty bad neck injury while playing for Ulster, keeping him out of that year's Autumn tests.

Also, in 2009, he suffered a similar injury which just about kept him off the pitch for a year.

However, Rory says the arm fracture in November and the surgery that followed was one of the sorest times of his life.

"It was one of the sorest operations I have ever had, for around a week I was laid very low."

"On the game, emotionally it was very tough because you had come so close and the support we got that day, it was the best atmosphere I've ever experienced in an Ireland jersey."

"Everyone was telling you that you did really well, but as a group of players, that's not good enough."

"We expect to win these games so from that point it was an emotional rollercoaster, ultimately we felt there was a massive opportunity gone by on the pitch," Best said.