Brian O'Driscoll joined Joe Molloy on Off The Ball on Tuesday night to discuss Ireland and their World Cup chances.
Ireland are Grand Slam champions.
Victory over England and Scotland in the final rounds secured the St. Patrick's Day crown. Ireland are the number one-ranked team in the world and they have all the boxes ticked to be World Cup contenders.
Brian O'Driscoll compares Andy Farrell's side to the teams he played on, none of whom he believes were ever good enough to win the World Cup. And that's why he thinks it's fair that other countries view Ireland as needing to prove themselves.
"Until we do go and do it in a World Cup, we'll always be that 'but' team," O'Driscoll said.
"That's the reality of it and people have every right to shoot us down as a team that peaks between World Cups and so on. You still have to get it done at a time that really counts, which we have not managed to do.
"Unfortunately I have to live that as someone who was involved in four of them. When you look back and reflect on your career, you do think of the great days, but you also think about what you missed. What you didn't get done and what others have managed to do.
"You don't have one of them. A World Cup medal of course but we weren't World Cup-winning standard. We never were in those four World Cups. We could have gotten to a semi-final but we were never going to win it.
"Being confident this time around, it's the first time that you can genuinely say that there's a chance with lots going right for us that we could be World Cup champions.
"But..."
Ireland won't play again until the World Cup warmup games ahead of the World Cup in September.
Ireland's defence is the best in the world - Brian O'Driscoll.
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