O'Connell not surprised by Ireland's fast start to Six Nations

Back when Ireland's lineout was struggling at the World Cup, Paul O'Connell was quick to stress that just a few minor tune-ups were needed.

After two games of the Guinness Six Nations Ireland can boast a perfect record on their own throw, winning all 26 of their lineouts across the wins against France and Italy.

It might be a bit too early to declare the problem fixed, but the signs are good.

O'Connell, however, is keen to point out that their throw hasn't been tested quite like it was by the Springboks and All Blacks last year.

"France having a red card for one of their second rows helped, certainly," he says of their 13/13 record against the French in Marseille.

"[Paul] Willemse probably isn't a big jumper for them, but he's certainly a big lifter and it would have upset how they would have defended.

"Italy haven't challenged as much in the air in recent years as other teams. So, that's part of it."

The improvements, O'Connell says, have been small, but each one has played it's part in making their set-piece run clean.

"We haven't changed a massive amount. I'd say we're doing what we do a little bit better, across the board. How we lift, how we jump, how we call, how we throw. And all those things contribute," he added.

"In the World Cup, certainly in that South Africa game, they threw something different at us. We got our drill a little bit wrong and it led to a poor start to the game. Once we got over that, we were pretty much fine for the rest of the game.

"New Zealand got three lineouts off us in that game; two we got back straight away, one we unfortunately high-tackled from and we ended up in our corner.

"It's like every part of your game: it's never just one thing.

"There's drill in it, there's the call in it, there's the