Eddie O'Sullivan shrugged off his disappointment after watching the Six Nations title slip from his side's grasp as France scored a late try against Scotland to win the championship again.
'It's hard to take, but that's sport. We could wallow in self-pity now, but I don't think that would be the right thing to do,' O'Sullivan told reporters afterwards.
'We've won four out of five matches, played some great rugby and scored some great tries. We have to kick on from here.'
Asked whether the scheduling of Ireland's match before the game in France had given the French an unfair advantage, O'Sullivan replied: 'If we had known exactly how many points we needed to win, we could have set ourselves a target. But that wasn't the case. In that respect, France had an advantage.
'All we could do was go out there and try to score as many points as possible. From that point of view I've got nothing to hold against my team.'
O'Sullivan also insisted he had no complaints about the decision of the video referee to award Vermeulen's last-minute try.
'It was a tough call for him, but that's their job - to make these decisions. It certainly added a bit of drama to it,' he said.
