Williams knows his ailing side must defeat Ireland in Dublin to avoid an unwanted RBS 6 Nations wooden spoon as the first prize of his reign as coach.

The Australian saw the Scots humbled 31-0 at home to France and his side could not produce a consistent performance.

But he was dismayed to see the improvement from his pack that he had demanded following the defeat to Italy allied only by a toothless back division.

We cant get all the aspects of our team going at the same time, he lamented.

One area works in one game, then in the next we improve somewhere else and the initial part goes downhill.

Its difficult to put any pressure on the opposition when we cant go through more than two or three phases of possession at a time but I am convinced we are moving forward.

We are asking a lot of young guys to step into the shoes of some experienced players and it wont be until they have 15 caps behind them that we will know exactly what we have got.