Ireland captain Caelan Doris says his side are “nowhere near” reaching their full potential as they prepare to face Wales following a record away victory over England.
Head coach Andy Farrell’s side are hoping to see off Wales in Dublin on Friday (20:10 GMT) and set up a Six Nations Triple Crown decider at home to Scotland on 14 March.
But Doris insists Ireland still have plenty to work on despite scoring a record 42 points away to England a fortnight ago in a statement performance.
“Obviously there’s a positive feeling after a good performance like that but it’s about the bigger picture, really, and it’s about continuing to grow,” said Doris.
“We know we’re nowhere near our potential as a team and there’s a lot of hard work to put in, and there’s a long journey for us to go on still.
“It was back to hard work, back to the learnings from the game, of which there were some, as well as some good stuff. It’s just about building on it.
“We’ve got a pretty clear plan of where we want to go in terms of structures and the way we want to play and it’s about chasing that down week on week.”
Ireland are favourites to secure a fifth successive home win against Wales and condemn Steve Tandy’s side to a 15th straight championship loss.
However, Wales produced an encouraging performance against Scotland in a game they led for 65 minutes but lost 26-23.
Having opened the campaign with a heavy defeat by England, Doris says Wales are clearly improving and insists complacency will not be an issue for Ireland at a sold-out Aviva Stadium.
“I think they’ve grown throughout the tournament,” added Doris.
“You can see the progression game on game. Obviously they put it up to Scotland in the most recent fixture. They started well.
“They’ve clearly invested a lot of time in their attack. It’s a good attack and it’s going to be a challenge for our defence.
“I’m sure in camp they’ve been taking a lot of positives from that (Scotland) game.”