Against Italy, Ireland stuttered to victory with a little help from referee Dave Pearson, in Paris they produced a first-half performance so tactically naive it was baffling, while against Wales they went back to basics and roughed out a victory against a side in utter disarray once Stephen Jones had departed the scene.

Ok, we're taking a hard line here but what we have seen so far this term can hardly be chalked down as progression.

In fact if you consider the visible attempts to play the game wider and faster against both Italy and France, there's an argument that we actually went backwards with the tight game-plan put into operation against Wales. Witness the stats. Up to 124 passes completed in the Italy game, 198 against France and just 99 against Wales.

Sure, it was probably the right game-plan to win that fixture but if the argument is that Ireland needed to organise themselves that particular way to avoid playing into the hands of the fast and loose Welsh, when will the day come when other teams decide to shut up shop because they're playing an Irish team capable of cutting them apart at the sniff of a dropped ball?

Not anytime soon, goes the easy answer to that one because there's little sign of advancement. We're sure Eddie O'Sullivan has his own benchmarks as to what he wants his team to achieve, but he hasn't met our ones so far. Take the back-line play for example. Last weekend, there were two separate occasions in the first half when two players ran into each other as they attempted to move the ball wide; Brian O'Driscoll and Geordan Murphy on the first occasion, the captain and Andrew Trimble the second. Even the move that lead to Shane Horgan's try was poorly executed and the only play of any spark involved the link-up between Horgan, O'Driscoll and O'Gara before Jerry Flannery was stopped just short of the line.

The long and short of it is that the players don't look happy with the ball in hand, particularly when put under pressure and that's something that hasn't changed in a couple of years. If they continue down this path the future is clear; we'll push France close in Pool D of the World Cup, scrape past Argentina if we're lucky the following weekend and lose miserably to the All Blacks in the quarter-final. Winning the pool, on the other hand, would set-up a quarter-final fixture against Saturday's opponents, Scotland.

But there's only one way that's going to happen . . .

namely if Ireland progress further down the road of an expansive and looser game plan . . . and next weekend it's anyone's guess how they'll go about things. The only hints we can draw from are the fact that Lansdowne Road is a dog of a ground to play in when the wind whips up and Scotland are a dog of a team to play against at the moment, making it all the more likely that O'Sullivan will select the easy and safe option in taking Scotland on around the fringes, with a couple of planned moves out wide on special occasions. As a plan it makes total sense if securing victory on the day is the coach's only raison d'etre, but with just 18 months until the World Cup, it hardly is.

There's likely to be just one change from the side that started against Wales with Paul O'Connell back in the second-row for Donncha O'Callaghan; Malcolm O'Kelly once again earning a stay of execution following an excellent effort last weekend. It's a recurring theme at this point with the Leinster second-row, almost as if he needs the threat of demotion half way through the season to sustain him for the rest of it.

Marcus Horan and John Hayes are both likely to be fit despite visits to hospital after the Wales game, while Andrew Trimble will keep his place on the left-wing after a solid rather than spectacular debut. We'd still prefer to see a genuine winger like Denis Hickie or Rob Kearney there, though.

Scotland, meanwhile, are on a high and rightly so.

Frank Hadden is proving himself to be an intelligent coach and if the only thing he's done is put a bit of spirit back into the Scotland camp, it appears to be enough. Their defence against both England and France has been excellent and if Ireland simply try to ram into them as Andy Robinson's side did in particular, they may not get much change from the visitors. The one plus-point from an Irish point of view is that the Scots appear to be a better team without the ball and are hugely lateral, like their Celtic League sides, in the way they attack. They'll make Ireland work hard when they have the ball but you can't imagine them opening up a well constructed home rearguard at will. They'll have to work extraordinarily hard for any points they get on the day, but that kind of lark should come a hell of a lot easier to Ireland if they play, and start, well.

Ireland to win by at least 10 but don't expect fireworks.

RBS SIX NATIONS IRELAND v SCOTLAND Saturday, Lansdowne Road, 3.30 Referee S Dickinson (Aus) Live, RTE 2/BBC 1, both 1.00