The Irish face England in a winner-takes-all clash at Lansdowne Road on Sunday to decide who will take the RBS 6 Nations Championship with a clean sweep of victories.

But the Irish campaign very nearly came to a shuddering halt in Cardiff last weekend when they squeezed past Wales at the Millennium Stadium courtesy of a late drop goal from fly-half Ronan O'Gara which earned them a 25-24 win.

That, though, will stand the Irish in good stead, O'Driscoll believes.

"We've fought through for 80 minutes and sometimes 90 minutes in games to beat off sides when it looked as though we were going to lose at the death none more so than the Wales game," the Ireland captain said.

"So I think to be playing not at our best but still winning gives us an awful lot of confidence.

"We know that when we do hit our top form then we're capable of beating anyone in the world and we'll need to have that if we're going to beat England."