Former British and Irish Lion Shane Horgan has questioned Andy Farrell's ability to sufficiently evolve Ireland's gameplan.

"This next fixture against Scotland (the Autumn Nations Cup third-place play-off) is interesting," Horgan told the AFP news agency.

"Ireland could play a reductive gameplan and get a result but I do not think it would be massively beneficial.

"Either way, Farrell after that game has to set out in further detail, for the fans perhaps but certainly for his employers, his strategy to move the team on so we perform better than we did at the World Cup last time round."

While Ireland have produced some promising performances in 2020, most notably in two home wins against Wales, a number of displays have come in for criticism with Farrell himself blasting his side's lacklustre win over Georgia last weekend.

Horgan, who played 65 Tests for Ireland and four for the British and Irish Lions, said he remains unconvinced that Ireland's game is going to significantly improve under the current coaching ticket.

"At the moment I cannot see us travelling on that trajectory," said Horgan. "The work might be in place but he must outline it."

In six years under Schmidt, Ireland enjoyed considerable success following the New Zealander's meticulous approach, but unravelled at last year's World Cup, suffering a heavy quarter-final defeat to the All Blacks.

Farrell's appointment indicated a move away from the highly-formulated gameplan of Schmidt in favour of a more free-flowing style in which players were given more license to improvise.

"Andy Farrell commented when he took over he was not so much focused on the gameplan but removing a bit of detail to allow players to express themselves," said Horgan.

"One benefit of the Joe Schmidt era was the detail and if the players followed it then they could express themselves.

"However, now without the detail to implement the gameplan it is very difficult for that to happen."

'There's never a smooth road'

Despite the poor performance against Georgia, which followed another comprehensive defeat by England, Farrell remains adamant that his team are on the right tracks.

Saturday's meeting with Scotland will be Ireland's ninth game of 2020, despite not playing for eight months due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

"It's been a strange old year for everyone. A little bit stop-start," said Farrell.

"I 100% know there are going to be massive ups and downs and there's never a smooth road.

"But the learnings that you take along the way, that's going to make you stronger in the long run and that's what I will take from it.

"You guys (the media) will obviously judge the performance at the weekend (against Georgia) and you won't necessarily see the steps we're taking on a daily basis behind the scenes.

"But we feel that we are working towards improving all aspects of our game.

"The fundamentals of the game always have to be strong. Finding the balance of how you improve the rest of the game, that's the tricky piece but it's one we've started and one we feel, behind the scenes, is going in the right direction."