British and Irish Lions centre Brian O'Driscoll has admitted that his side desperately need to win their upcoming series with Australia this summer.

The Lions haven't claimed a series victory in 16 years and have lost three consecutive tours, with their last triumph coming in 1997 after a 2-1 success over South Africa.

Since then the Lions have endured narrow losses to the Wallabies and Springboks either side of a 3-0 defeat to New Zealand, and O'Driscoll has urged his side to change their form in the tours.

"It's really important to win this series," O'Driscoll told Sky Sports News. "We probably gained back a little bit of the belief in what the Lions was about in 2009 by creating such a great series, albeit we lost 2-1.

"They were keenly contested games and could have gone either way, which was important after coming off the back of a 3-0 loss to the All Blacks in 2005. From the franchise point of view we need to win on occasion and that occasion has reoccurred after 16 years. It's a long time to still be talking about 1997.

"We need to create new, fresh memories that people can talk about more recently than two years after the advent of professionalism. It's time to kick on to the next level."

The Lions get their tour underway in Hong Kong on Saturday when they face the Barbarians.