Ireland began their campaign with defeats at the hands of France and Italy, followed by a comprehensive home win over Wales and a heavy 88-10 loss to England at Twickenham last Saturday.

"It was a tough weekend last weekend, really hard, but credit to Scott [Bemand, head coach] and the players. We addressed that in London and resolved to bounce back.

"We have worked really hard this week, trained well and put ourselves in a position to produce a good performance. We take a lot of confidence from our preparation."

McKee believes Saturday's meeting with the Scots in Belfast will be close.

"Scotland are a well-balanced team across the park - they have lots of ability across their forward pack so we're really going to have to be across our game there because that will lay the platform for us and allow us to put them under some pressure.

"They have made a few changes around their back-line so that will be interesting, some enforced and some selection wise.

"We see it as a couple of very evenly matched teams going into this game."