Declan Kidney’s side suffered defeats in Scotland and France before going down in a close-fought rematch with Les Bleus at the Aviva Stadium andlosing to England at home last month.

Just four years ago in France, Eddie O’Sullivan’s heavily-fancied Ireland side failed to make it out of their group after defeats to France and Argentina while they were given frights by minnows Georgia and Namibia.

But when O’Driscoll walks out at the Yarrow Stadium for their World Cup opener with the USA on September 11th, the 32-year-old maintains the 14 players that follow him will have fresh heads and clear minds.

"We feel confident and we're looking forward to the games," said O’Driscoll, whose side are also set to face Australia, Italy and Russia.

"We're not bringing any scars from the last month with us, it's all about the start of the World Cup.

“Australia are ranked second in the world and are going to be huge and a very tough team to beat.

“But we learnt in 2007 that there are no pushover Test matches.

“We had it hard against a couple of lesser-known international nations.

“We certainly won’t be taking anything for granted.

“We’ll focus on our first game and take it from there.”