Ireland hungrier than ever, says O'Driscoll

Ireland captain Brian O'Driscoll has said that his side is even hungrier than last year and warned his side's rivals that defence will again be the foundation of their RBS 6 Nations campaign.

Speaking about whether Ireland could show the same desire after securing a first Grand Slam since 1948 last year, he told RTÉ Sport's Michael Corcoran: 'I genuinely believe that everyone is as hungry if not hungrier this year to try and do something special.

'To achieve another Grand Slam is asking a huge amount but (we will) try and let our performances take care of results and try and chase for a Championship if nothing else.'

Do Ireland's achievements over the last year make them a better team in 2010 than they were 12 months ago? Not necessarily, according to O'Driscoll. He said: 'We'll see when we take the pitch. We're not owed anything just because we have won something or because we had an undefeated year. That counts for nothing now. This year is a new year.

'We've seen in the past teams coming off a great November and not being able to do it in the Six Nations. You just have to front up time and time again if you want the respect of the other teams.'

O'Driscoll also admitted that while Ireland ended last year's tournament with a vintage result, they didn't always manage to play their best rugby: 'If you look at the games last year we didn't necessarily didn't play that well for the entirety of the competition.

'We probably played our best rugby in the first game against France and then we did enough throughout the remaining games. It's trying to put together those 80-minute performances to make yourselves very difficult to beat.'

Ireland's defence will again be basis for their Championship bid, though keeping out tries and minimising mistakes is a project with no end according to the Leinster man.

He added: 'I think that's the cornerstone of a lot of the great teams. Their performances are based on their defensive system being very difficult to break down and we're absolutely no different.

'We're constantly trying to work on it. We don't feel we're anywhere close to being the finished article and it's always a work in progress.

'We look forward to trying to continue conceding as few tries as few penalties and as few linebreaks as possible and maybe even turning defence into attack at times.'