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Ireland scrum-half Craig Casey says he "doesn't want to be second choice" as he vies with Jamison Gibson-Park for a starting berth.
Casey came off the bench against New Zealand in the 26-13 loss to win his 21st cap for Ireland.
He captained a largely second-string Ireland in their summer tour and is eager to get more game time with the main core of players returning this autumn from the Lions tour.
"I haven't got to the place I want to be in an Ireland jersey yet," he said.
"I don't want to be second choice; I haven't wanted to be third choice over the last few years but it's about taking the chance when I do get it.
"I hope to think I'm fairly close [to starting], I've pushed a lot over the last 12 months, but I've a lot of respect for Jamo."
Casey could be presented with a chance to start against Japan on Saturday as head coach Andy Farrell assesses his options with games against Australia and South Africa to come.
The 26-year-old is hoping to make a greater impact on the remaining autumn internationals if he features after admitting he was disappointed with his display against New Zealand and his part in opposite number Cam Roigard scoring their fourth try.
"I wasn't too happy, you want to come on and impact games. I probably had very few touches, and I felt I didn't come on and light it up like I wanted to," he explained.
"[Roigard's try] it's completely on me. I got caught up at the time, I've watched it 25 times and I still don't know what I was thinking at the time, but I take it on the chin.
"It's never nice when a scrum-half scores against you."
Casey believes he has "grown" a lot over the last two years but acknowledges he still has a lot to work on to be "consistently world class".
"The scanning and the calmness, when things click in your mind and you've seen things you've never seen before, that's the biggest area of growth for me.
"To continue improving, I need to be an all-round player and bring my full game to every game.
"I'm very happy with where my basics are. so it's probably adding layers onto that."
