Kidney named a 39-man training squad last week with Jamie Heaslip as captain and a number of exciting youngsters including Ulster wing Craig Gilroy and Connacht duo Dave McSharry and Robbie Henshaw

Ireland will go into the competition with optimism following impressive victories over Fiji and Argentina this autumn and Kidney believes the current crop will be a match for anyone.

“With any young, evolving team, there’ll be other bumps along the way,” he told the Irish Sun.

“But they’re showing potential, that they have potential to win things, to win competitions.

“But for that you have to put together back to back wins and performances, and that’s the challenge for the group to do that.

“We’re capable of playing well, but we know we can be our own worst enemies. At Test level it’s unforgiving, at provincial level you can make mistakes and sometimes there’s space to make up for it.

“But in a five-game competition there’s very little space.

“Ireland are good enough to take on anybody, but we’re not good enough to roll up and have any match taken for granted.”