SCOTLAND appear to be in the midst of some serious internal debate right now, the type that every international side making their way up the development curve goes through at some point or other. The dilemma? Should they persist with Frank Hadden's limited and cautious game plan, a policy that has seen them progress steadily over the past two seasons, or should they throw caution to the wind and take a couple more risks, risks that might open them up to greater reward?

The problem is that the latter option opens Scotland up to exactly the scenario that they went through last weekend against Italy, where they conceded, or rather handed, the visitors three rapid-fire tries as they attempted to inject a little spice into their game.

But despite the obvious disappointment with how thinks worked out then, Scottish coach Frank Hadden doesn't regret his decision to broaden the horizons of his side.

"I believe that we could have gone out and played as conservatively as we did in Rome last year and engineered the same result [13-10 win], " says Hadden of his side's 34-14 defeat. "If we were playing Italy in the World Cup next week, we would settle for 18-12 and a more conservative approach to the game because we think our defence is capable of snuffing out their attack; the only opportunities they had at the weekend were the ones we gave to them."

Hadden speaks sense on the Italian game but if you can draw anything from his comments, it's that Scotland will be reverting back to basics on Saturday against Ireland. The home side will attempt, like they did so successfully against both France and England at Murrayfield last year (and Wales this year to an extent), to stifle Ireland's many attacking threats with their all-suffocating defensive system and then hope they are competitive enough at the breakdown to give Chris Paterson enough opportunities to kick his side to victory. It's worked for them before and they clearly believe it can work for them again. There are, however, a couple of 'ifs'.

For one, Scotland are carrying a fair few injuries into the coming week. Prop Euan Murray, back-rowers Kelly Brown and Dave Callam and, most importantly of all, Chris Paterson, are all on the treatment table with some ailment or other. The truth of the matter is that they'll need their place-kicker and at least two of the other three to be fit in time for Saturday if they're to have any hope of overturning Ireland.

The other intangible is Ireland, and more precisely, their attitude to this particular game. Their first three games of this Six Nations have all been high-profile events with massive buildups. This game won't be anything like those super-hyped fixtures. Allow us to make this comparison. If Ireland's games against Wales, France and particularly England were Heineken Cup games, than Saturday's encounter against Scotland is like a return to the Magners League.

That might sound a bit harsh on Hadden's men, but on the scale of what has gone before, this Scottish game isn't getting the nation all that exercised and we can only hope that attitude doesn't transfer to the players.

They have, though, struggled before at provincial level after stepping down from highoctane events to something a little simpler and the 1.30 kick-off is not exactly the prime time to play rugby.

But presuming they're professional and hungry enough to gee themselves up effectively enough for this one, the tactical approach they take into this game will also be crucial. There must be a temptation in the mind of Eddie O'Sullivan to try and bash their way through Scotland, to play them at their own game and turn proceedings into a dogfight. That, however, would be a massive mistake.

Looking at things logically, the only way Scotland are going to beat this hugely talented Irish outfit is by scrapping hard, forcing them into mistakes and generally making the game as stop-start as possible. It's exactly the way they accounted for both France and England at Murrayfield last year and O'Sullivan would be na�ve in the extreme to play into Scottish hands.

On Saturday, Ireland need to be extremely positive from the first whistle, looking not only to win the game, but to win the game by a decent margin. Put the two teams side by side on paper and Ireland are a better team by at least 20 points and a bit of daring will see them win by such a margin. Despite winning two out of three games thus far this spring, the Irish backline still hasn't quite reached the peaks that we know it's capable of and Saturday can be the day that they dazzle the Six Nations once more. The Scottish backline, aside from the straight-running Rob Dewey and elusive Sean Lamont, is pedestrian at best and with licence from their coach to have a real go, Brian O'Driscoll, Gordon D'Arcy and co could really run riot at Murrayfield. Let's hope they're permitted to be positive from Dave Pearson's first shrill.

Of course, the forwards need to win the collision battle on the gain-line first, but we have every confidence that David Wallace, Paul O'Connell and Denis Leamy can reproduce their abrasive performances against England in Edinburgh. The lineout is also going to be competitive, but it's also an area where Ireland can win outright, while if the entire side can keep their discipline at the breakdown, much like they did last weekend against England when Jonny Wilkinson was restricted to just three convertible penalty attempts, they could cut much of Scotland's scoring potential.

As for the possibility of a third Triple Crown in four years, we have to wonder about the true worth of the "honour" in this Year of Our Lord, 2007. The last time it seemed relevant was back in the 1980s, when Fred Cogley was still doing his stuff as a commentator on RTE, but it still probably deserves a night of toasting before switching the focus to much bigger things. It's not really worth a serious hangover, though.

That "honour" should be all Scotland's come Sunday morning.

IRELAND (probable) G Dempsey; S Horgan, B O'Driscoll (c), G D'Arcy, D Hickie; R O'Gara, P Stringer; M Horan, R Best, J Hayes, D O'Callaghan, P O'Connell, N Best, D Wallace, D Leamy SCOTLAND (probable) H Southwell; S Lamont, M Di Rollo, R Dewey, C Paterson (c); P Godman, C Cusiter; R Kerr, D Hall, E Murray, N Hines, S Murray, S Taylor, D Callam, K Brown RBS SIX NATIONS SCOTLAND v IRELAND Saturday, Murray"eld, 1.30 Live, BBC1/RTE 2, 1.00 Referee D Pearson (Eng) RESULTS, TABLE AND FIXTURES PWDL FAPts France 330091416 Ireland 320179424 England 320175704 Italy 310247762 Scotland 310258882 Wales 300339720 RESULTS 3 February Italy 3 France 39; England 42 Scotland 20 4 February Wales 9 Ireland 19 10 February England 20 Italy 7; Scotland 21 Wales 9 11 February Ireland 17 France 20 24 February Scotland 17 Italy 37; Ireland 43 England 13; France 32 Wales 21 FIXTURES Saturday Scotland v Ireland, Murray"eld, 1.30; Italy v Wales, Stadio Flaminio, 3.30 Sunday 11 March England v France, Twickenham, 3.00 Saturday 17 March Italy v Ireland, Stadio Flaminio, 1.30; France v Scotland, Stade de France, 3.30; Wales v England, Millennium Stadium, 5.30