Resounding autumn victories over South Africa and Australia, combined with a settled side and lack of injuries, have seen the Irish installed as favourites for the RBS 6 Nations.

But O’Driscoll has declared the time for talking is over, with Sunday’s championship opener against Wales at the Millennium Stadium looming large.

“Winning the Grand Slam would be a dream come true,” said the Leinster centre, who will win his 71st cap on Sunday.

“But, while it’s all very well saying these things before the tournament, the only thing we’re concentrating on at this stage is the Six Nations.

“Talk is cheap - now we have to do the business on the park. Yes, we are favourites for the Six Nations but we won’t be changing anything because of it.

“Perhaps we’ll now be given more respect from teams. We’ve got to play with that confidence and element of arrogance that is expected of you when you have put in some good performances.

“We will try and do that on the pitch but we won’t really change a great deal. We must keep level-headed right throughout the tournament.”

Ireland announced themselves as the best team in the northern hemisphere by demolishing the Springboks and Wallabies in stunning fashion at Lansdowne Road last November.

The Tri-Nations giants were comprehensively beaten in consecutive Tests but, worryingly for Ireland’s Six Nations rivals, O’Driscoll believes the performances were far from perfect.

“It will be a great disappointment if we don’t improve on the autumn,” he said.

“People were patting us on the back, saying how wonderfully we played. But, when you analyse the games, we still made a huge amount of errors and spurned a lot of scoring opportunities.

“We have plenty to improve on. We need to realise that and not think we’re are the finished article.

“I don’t think anyone did but sometimes you need a reality check and [head coach] Eddie O’Sullivan gave us that last week when he started going through the videos and showing where we can make some big improvements.

“A team doesn’t stay the same - they get better or they get worse. I hope we are going to get better.”