Skipper Brian O'Driscoll is confident the Irish backline will fire against France © Getty Images

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Brian O'Driscoll is hoping Ireland's much-hyped backline can live up to their potential in their Six Nations opener against France on Saturday.

Ireland's misfiring three-quarters are under pressure to shake off the criticisms that followed their disappointing showing in the November clashes with New Zealand and Argentina that produced just one try. Of more concern to coach Declan Kidney would have been the lack of any significant line-breaks in both Tests.

Leinster backs O'Driscoll, Robert Kearney and Luke Fitzgerald have all been named in this weekend's line-up, but the Irish province has also been suffering a try drought of late, failing to score against both Wasps and Edinburgh in their last two Heineken Cup matches.

On top of all that, Leinster's backs coach is Alan Gaffney, who also oversees the Ireland attack, and the Australian is coming under increasing pressure to deliver.

"I think we have an exciting backline," said O'Driscoll. "You see a lot of guys with huge potential. "I think we've great potential if we can click; that's the big if, we have to click.

"We've worked at it all week at training and it's gone reasonably well. We've tried to build and build and build for the rest of the week and, hopefully, come five o'clock on Saturday evening, we'll click together as a unit.

"It's getting more and more difficult to get line-breaks at international level. There are different personnel in for this game so we've worked hard at trying to be a unit and understanding one another. The more you play together the more you do understand one another's game and play off instinct. There was no great formula to it, it's a matter of trying to make it happen."

Aside from Ireland's backline issues, O'Driscoll says the poor performances of French clubs in the Heineken Cup is likely to galvanise the national side on Saturday.

"You always take the best out of your given situation," said the Ireland captain. "If they were doing extremely well, they'd take that confidence on board and feel they could all bring positives to their set-up. Whereas now, the clubs haven't done brilliantly in Europe but this is a new entity for them.

"This is very different, it's away from their clubs, it's back to France and I'm sure they'll be looking to put in big performances and try to impress Marc Lievremont (France head coach). He's mixed the team up in the last while and guys are looking to cement their places as regulars in the team. No better time to do that than in the first game."

O'Driscoll, capped 88 times, is also relishing the prospect of teaming up with Paddy Wallace in Ireland's midfield against Les Bleus. "One of the great pluses with Paddy is that he's a great distributor and it's nice to have that inside you," he added. "He's a real creator. I played with him during the summer tour (2008) against Australia and New Zealand and I played at Under-19 level with him. We know each other quite well."