They now face a Scotland team who denied them the Triple Crown last year courtesy of their 23-20 victory at Croke Park.

And Gaffney maintains Ireland’s problems can be solved if his players start using their heads.

“We’ve got to communicate a lot better than we’re doing at the present time. It’s an Irish thing, that we don’t talk much,” said Gaffney.

“There are talkers out there, like Paulie (O’Connell) and probably Darce (Gordon D’Arcy) and Drico (Brian O’Driscoll), but we’ve got to get guys out there to stand up, be accountable, chat, communicate and make the game easier for each other.

“Of one thing there’s no doubt, we were coughing up a bit of ball in training and that seems to be transferring to the pitch

“It was a concentration thing, and that’s all it can be. I mean, the skill level is very, very high.

“We’re just not getting the results because we’re not executing well enough. But if we go out there and perform the way we know we can and get that result, the confidence level will rise enormously.”