Brian O'Driscoll scored Ireland's only try in last weekend's 13-12 victory over Italy in Rome © Getty Images

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Matches: Ireland 22 - 25 France

Players/Officials: Brian O'Driscoll

Tournaments/Tours: Six Nations

Teams: France | Ireland

Ireland captain Brian O'Driscoll claims that he is excited by the prospect of leading his players into battle against a fearsome French side at the Aviva Stadium on Sunday.

Les Bleus have arrived in Dublin on the back of a thrilling victory over Scotland on the opening weekend of this year's Six Nations, while Ireland kicked off their Championship campaign with a distinctly unimpressive win over Italy.

However, despite the contrasting nature of the two side's performances last weekend, O'Driscoll insists that he is relishing the opportunity to tackle the French.

"I love playing on these days. I've been lucky enough to play in a few of them and they get better with each year," the Leinster centre said. "The harder the games are, the more fulfilling the victories are. I'm looking forward to it. It's felt like quite a long week this week, albeit it's just a day later than our usual Saturday kick-off.

"Things have gone well. In training we've tried to put right the errors we made last weekend against Italy. We've been doing our homework and everyone is looking forward to being back in the Aviva with a packed crowd ready to cheer us on.

"We respect the way France played against Scotland but at the same time they leaked a few tries and that showed there's an element of vulnerability there. We must try to exploit that and make sure we don't do what we did last week, instead being clinical when the opportunities arise."

O'Driscoll is a veteran of the fixture, having lined out against France on ten previous occasions. He had expected to once again lock horns with old adversary Yannick Jauzion but the Toulouse man has only made the bench for the game in Dublin. Instead, O'Driscoll will be going head-to-head with Clermont's Aurelien Rougerie.

"France's strength in depth is huge and when they leave someone of Yannick's experience on the bench it shows the calibre of player they've got," he said.

"I've played against Rougerie a number of times and he's an extremely dangerous ball carrier and a ferocious tackler. He's got a wealth of experience himself. It will be a big challenge and he's definitely up there with the best players in the world."