Brian O'Driscoll's scored Ireland's only try early in the second half in Rome

Brian O'Driscoll has said Ireland will be "torn apart" if they start slowly against France in Sunday's RBS Six Nations match in Dublin.

The French were impressive in Saturday's 34-21 win over Scotland and O'Driscoll says Ireland will have to be fired up from the very first whistle.

"We can't expect a slow start and then to get going," said the Ireland captain who will win his 109th cap on Sunday.

"If we start slowly this weekend, we'll get torn apart."

O'Driscoll's 42nd Ireland try appeared to settle Ireland down in Rome, but the momentum swung to the hosts as the men in green struggled to maintain possession and coughed up turnover after turnover.

Despite Ireland's Italian struggles, coach Declan Kidney has made only one change with Jamie Heaslip replacing Denis Leamy in the back row.

O'Driscoll agreed with Kidney's assertion there were positives to be taken from last week, and blamed the performance on individual errors, rather than any systemic issue.

"They know themselves, people know themselves (what went wrong)," O'Driscoll argued.

"The number of errors I made might be uncharacteristic but they happened nonetheless.

606: DEBATE I worry that Tomas O'Leary will have the french backrow all over him Kinsey

"So we need to do extra work and practise on areas that might have let us down so we get them right next time we pull on the jersey.

"But I stand by what I said last weekend, parts of our shape was really good, we created a huge amount of chances.

"The small things, like looking after the ball, the quality of passing, that can be easily corrected.

"If we work as hard as we did, work on shape, and bring the ball through phases, then with a bit of luck and a few mismatches we can take our opportunities."

Kidney has urged his side to maintain the "courage" to attack against a powerful France side.

"France are a very strong team, one of the best in world, with a strong all-round game," said Kidney.

"But we just need to concentrate on ourselves and have the courage to go out and play.

"The way the laws are now, if you stand off and attempt damage limitation you are going to get opened up.

"We are hugely self-critical sometimes, so we need to relax and play."

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version