British and Irish Lions: Brian O'Driscoll says Australia are one of world's smartest teams

Brian O'Driscoll: Celebrates after the Lions' 2001 victory in Brisbane

The Irish legend, returning to the scene of his greatest Lions triumph in Brisbane, said the Wallabies are one of the "smartest" teams in world rugby.

O'Driscoll scored a sensational try in Brisbane 12 years ago as the Lions won the first match of the 2001 series.

Australia hit back in Melbourne and Sydney to win the series, and whilst many pundits make the Lions favourites to win in 2013, O'Driscoll says they will have to respect the Wallabies.

"I've said it until I am blue in the face but the Australians are probably one of the smartest teams," O'Driscoll said.

"They invariably have very clever players in key positions and Saturday's team is no different.

"You look at the quality of the players left out of their side so you realise the calibre of the players who are going to be playing and that heightens the excitement all the more."

O'Driscoll says Wallabies inside-centre Christian Lealiifano fits the mould.

Thinker

"Just from what I've seen in Super Rugby, Christian is a good distributor of the ball and another clever thinker of the game and being able to identify space," he said.

"He's in that Aussie mould of being able to play heads-up rugby, a clever footballer. He's someone who fits into the role perfectly it will be an exciting time for him but also a nerve-wracking time to make your best on this stage."

"Obviously the Wallabies have a great record at Suncorp (Stadium) and we haven't seen them for quite a while as they've been in training camp.

"No doubt they will be pulling some new things out on Saturday but we can't really worry ourselves about them.

"Yes, we have done analysis on them and tried to identify where they will be strong and where we feel we can go at them, but we have to focus on ourselves and get our game right and try to implement that game plan on them."

O'Driscoll, on his fourth Lions tour, expects to be more relaxed ahead of the match than he was 12 years ago.

"I am hopeful that it will be a little less stressful this time round. You've been there a couple of times and I've seen different type of results, although I haven't won a lot of Lions Test matches," he said.

"From knowing what to expect a little bit more hopefully I will be able to be a little bit more relaxed and have a little bit of calm.

"You can't concern yourself with the enormity or what's at stake or how many people watching. All you can do is play your game and focus on that."

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