Ireland lost 32-20 to England in Dublin last weekend while Scotland secured a bonus-point 33-20 win at home to Italy.

"Ireland are a good enough team to turn things round, look at where they went wrong and rectify that," said Pountney.

"They will look to keep the ball for longer periods of time and put pressure on Scotland when they have the ball."

The former flanker added: "The Scottish coaching team and players will be well aware of that so Scotland have got to be ferocious and got to be in the face of Ireland.

"I think it will be a very fast, very physical game, a fantastic game to watch."

Scotland are unbeaten in seven home Six Nations matches since losing to England in February 2016 and the progression of Edinburgh and Glasgow to this season's European Champions Cup quarter-finals has given them an extra boost.

"Scotland are benefitting from Glasgow and Edinburgh playing confident fast-flowing rugby and if they can produce that tempo and play at 100% they have a really good chance of beating anyone on their day despite having a smaller pool of players to choose from," said Pountney.

"Ireland will be fully on the front foot come Saturday and Scotland can expect to be up against a very angry, committed Irish team.

"The fact that Italy scored three late consolation tries last week will strengthen the resolve and focus of the Scottish guys but Ireland are a totally different proposition.

"Scotland will look to try and replicate how England played against Ireland, the speed of the defence that the English had, and see if they can put Ireland under the same amount of pressure.

"Both sides have a lot of stepping up to do so it's a really intriguing match-up."