The boat of Paul Griffin, Richard Archibald, Eugene Coakley and Gearoid Towey go in the final this afternoon at Dorney Lake, Eton, rowing venue for the 2012 Olympics.

The Championships are the culmination of a successful international season for the crew. They wear the yellow vests of World Cup winners following victories in the regattas in Lucerne and Poznan and a second placed finish behind Germany in the first leg in Munich.

Following the World Cup, they travelled to a monthlong training camp in St Moritz, Switzerland before making their way to Eton under the tutelage of coach Harald Jahrling.

Their form this year made them favourites for the World title, allied to the fact that the crew took silver at last year's championships in Japan, with Gearoid Towey replacing Tim Harnedy from that boat.

Surprisingly finishing second behind China in their heat, the four dominated their repechage to reach the semifinals on Friday. A slow start saw them in fourth at one stage but a strong last 250 metres saw them take third spot behind defending champions France and Great Britain, grabbing a place in today's final.

Paul Griffin admits that the semi-final was a case of a job done. "We were good in places and not so good in others.

There are places on our race we can work on, especially the start where we gave a way a lot of time."

With World Cups raced over three days and these championships held over a week, there has been a change of approach for the Irish crew. Performances in the heats are not so important . . . the aim has always been to peak for the final, according to the Killarney student.

"It's a new day, a new race.

The heats don't matter come the final. Our mentality was always built towards the final itself, it's going to be our best race. That's our focus, that's where the medals are won."

A feature of the Irish crew's performance this year has been a raising of the intensity in the third part of the race.

Their opponents recognised this and have adjusted their strategy accordingly.

"The other crews are trying to combat our big third quarter push, they know our game-plan but we are still the strongest at it. It's our strength, and it's a great place to have it, it can really break up the field, " says Griffin.

The final represents a new challenge for the crew but Richard Archibald identifies the path to gold for the Irish boat.

"We have to take the race by the scruff of the neck, " he says. "When we put a good row together we are capable of dominating. We have a very good second half where we can squeeze on and crush a lot of the crews. We'll be looking to play to our strengths, get a good clean start and stay solid in the early part of the race. Then we'll put the hammer down at half-way and bring the race home. There's no point in reinventing the wheel because we haven't seen anything here that will make us change our approach. Stick with what you know, row your own race.

"The aim has to be the gold medal. We got silver last year, it's only natural to want to improve. Of course there's pressure, that's what you get with a high-performance sport. It's how you deal with the big days; we're experienced so we will be able to deal with that."

In addition to France and Great Britain they will face China, Australia and Canada.

Heat-winners China, an overachieving Great Britain and a young Canadian crew all created surprises by reaching the final but Ireland's greatest opposition will come from defending champions France and Australia. There are only two seconds covering the entire field in a race that takes over six minutes to row and although drawn in an unfavourable lane the Irish crew have the talent to take gold and round off a fantastic season.

WORLD ROWING CHAMPIONSHIPS Dorney Lake, Eton Men's Lightweight Fours Final 2.15 Live BBC2, Eurosport; Delayed coverage RTE Two