Paul McNaughton insists that Ireland are paying little heed to Wales boss Warren Gatland's 'mind games' ahead of Saturday's crunch RBS 6 Nations clash in Cardiff. 

Gatland claimed earlier this week that Wales' players 'dislike' their Irish counterparts more than any other side in the Championship and are determined to scupper their bid for Grand Slam.

However, Ireland team McNaughton did his best to avoid being drawn on the issue when it was put to him on Thursday.

“There seems to be a lot of stuff coming out of Wales. I've read some of it. I don't have any response to it really,” he insisted.

"The only thing I can say about the Irish and the Welsh is that the Irish players certainly respect the Welsh players, but I can't really comment on his portrayal of the Welsh not liking the Irish."

McNaughton, though, was keen to rubbish Gatland’s claim that the Irish players spent over an hour and a half in their dressing room ‘singing and celebrating’ after their win over Scotland in Murrayfield last weekend.

"It was completely wrong and nonsense. There wasn't a note sung in the dressing room. Most of them can't sing anyway," he joked.

"There wasn't a note sung and they were in reflective mood after the match and they were starting to think about the next match but there was no celebrations and no singing - it was all a load of nonsense.

"They might see it as mind games but we aren't taking any of this stuff seriously and I'm not being flippant here. Any of that stuff really isn't worthy of a response.

"I suspect they are looking for a reaction and trying to ramp up the pressure. But honestly it's having no effect on our preparations. The players are just concentrating on the game."