Ireland's Sean O'Brien fired up for World Cup after Six Nations glory

Sean O'Brien is already targeting Irish success on the World Cup stage after learning valuable lessons in their Six Nations campaign.

Leinster flanker O'Brien grabbed two tries as Ireland thumped Scotland 40-10 at Murrayfield to claim back-to-back Six Nations titles for the first time since 1949.

The 28-year-old backed up scores from captain Paul O'Connell and centre Jared Payne as Ireland denied England the title on points. 

It was a thrilling finale to the Six Nations on Super Saturday and O'Brien reflected on the defeat by Wales as a harsh World Cup lesson for Joe Schmidt's men.

We can be very proud of ourselves of how we approached the game and did our business

"Looking back now it might not have been the worst thing in the world," said O'Brien, of Ireland losing 23-16 in Wales to spoil their Grand Slam chase.

"We know we can learn and move forward. That was the biggest thing to come out of last week; that we didn't do our jobs correctly and we didn't do what we did during the week.

"If we approach the game like we did, for instance, make sure everyone is going 100 miles an hour, we know we are never too far away."

Ireland's third Six Nations triumph in six years tees head coach Schmidt's men up nicely for the autumn World Cup in England.

Schmidt's ultra-tactical approach came under fire after defeat in Wales, with Warren Gatland beating his Kiwi compatriot at his own game, but they rediscovered their attacking rhythm in Edinburgh with four tries against Scotland matching their previous tally for the entire tournament.

"There has been a lot of talk about the style of play the last few weeks but defences in this competition are very strong," O'Brien added.

"With analysis and what not, they are able to close people down and the quality of player and strength in depth, you have really good players playing against you.

"You have to bring them to a place where they are under a lot of pressure and maybe we haven't done that in the last few weeks. But we can be very proud of ourselves today of how we approached the game and did our business.

We've got a very distinct understanding of what our strategy is and what our game plan is

"I wouldn't say it was a different style [against Scotland]. We have been trying to play a bit like that the last few weeks but we haven't been, and we've let ourselves down at times with our own errors as well, letting teams into games.

"But we approached it the right way against Scotland, did our jobs, and it paid off."

Brian O'Driscoll believes the Irish team have the perfect platform to take the World Cup by storm.

The former Ireland skipper, who lifted the Six Nations trophy 12 months ago in Paris in his final international match, said: "I think it sets us up really well.

"You always look at positives in any loss - the defeat to Wales might be a blessing in disguise. In Ireland we don't do middle ground: we're either top of the pile or bottom of the heap.

"If we had won the Grand Slam, going into the World Cup, there would have been an absolutely insane amount of pressure on the boys.

"That being said, we've won the Six Nations and there's still going to be that pressure and that level of expectation. We're playing with a huge amount of confidence, we've got a very distinct understanding of what our strategy is and what our game plan is.

"Everyone's singing off the same hymn sheet. If we can be fortunate with not losing too many players to injury I don't see why we can't find ourselves in a semi-final - all bets are off when you get to that point."