Despite Scotland having lost all four of their Six Nations matches to date, former Ireland winger Denis Hickie believes the visitors will be in for a tough test on Saturday at BT Murrayfield.

Hickie, who won 62 caps for his country between 1997 and 2007 and went on the British & Irish Lions tour in 2005, has been impressed by Scotland's improvement under head coach Vern Cotter and does not think Ireland will turn them over as easily as some people think in their bid for championship glory.

"Obviously stats don't lie and for Scotland to have lost all four matches to date is disappointing for them, but they have shown me enough to suggest that they can cause Ireland problems on their day," the 39-year-old said.

"I think the Scottish team will want to give their fans something to shout about at Murrayfield and they have a number of exciting backs who can certainly cause problems if they get enough ball and, crucially, quick ball.

"From where they were two or three years ago when they were really struggling this Scotland team has come on a lot under Cotter and they will want to show that their wins in November were not just a false dawn."

Ireland's players have been licking their wounds over the last few days following the 23-16 loss to Wales in Cardiff.

However, Hickie, who will be working as BBC pundit at the match on Saturday, knows they have not become a bad team overnight.

"The Welsh loss was Ireland's first in 11 matches, so while the guys will have been disappointed they have a real self belief and will want to bounce back and claim the title. In head coach Joe Schmidt they have a great operator while captain Paul O'Connell has been there and done that.

"They will have been fixing the things that went wrong against Wales this week and getting their players to focus on Scotland's strengths so that they can stop them from playing the way they want to.

"Much is being made of the timings of the three final day matches and how much of a part points difference will play, but firstly Ireland just have to secure a win."

Hickie himself has mixed memories of playing for Ireland against Scotland in Edinburgh. In 1997 he earned his second Irish cap there and scored a try very early on, but Scotland went on to win the game 38-10 with tries from Alan Tait, Tony Stanger, Gregor Townsend, Peter Walton and Doddie Weir.

Four years later he played in a match that was delayed by foot and mouth outbreak when Scotland derailed Ireland's championship hopes with a 32-10 victory.

However, he was victorious on a number of occasions in the Scottish capital and he said: "It was a mixed bag of results, but I always remember the atmosphere being brilliant at Murrayfield and I expect the same this time around as the two teams want to win badly for different reasons."