Simon Finnigan insists Ireland will overcome the 'devastation' of their two-point defeat by Tonga to make another important contribution to the 2008 World Cup.
Ireland pushed a star-studded Tonga all the way in a truly memorable opening Pool C match at Parramatta before conceding a late try and going down 22-20.
Ireland now need Samoa to beat their South Pacific neighbours in Penrith on Friday to keep alive their hopes of claiming the fourth semi-final berth.
It remains a big ask but Andy Kelly's men have a full week to get over a defeat that left them physically and mentally shattered.
'It was heart-breaking,' confirmed loose forward Simon Finnigan. 'The boys are devastated to be honest. I think we deserved to win but it doesn't always mean that you do win in rugby league. They came up with a play at the end and got the points.'
Ireland fought back three times to take the lead in an epic match and, when winger Damien Blanch completed his hat-trick after 66 minutes, they were in sight of a famous victory.
But former London Broncos stand-off Feleti Mateo, playing on his home ground at Parramatta Stadium, came up with a crucial 40-20 kick and, in the next play, fired out a pin-point pass to get winger Esi Tonga over for the match-winning try.
Ireland's players collapsed in a heap at the final whistle but they left the field to a standing ovation and earned the praise of coach Kelly for 'standing in front of a juggernaut'.
Kelly had claimed his side had not been given the respect they deserved in the build-up to the game and Finnigan admitted the criticism provided them with extra motivation.
'When you look at our team sheet, there are players who have played Super League for a lot of years and a lot of games,' said the former Widnes, Salford and Bradford forward, who will be playing for Huddersfield in 2009.
'Super League is not a bad competition and we're not bad players. So it did spur us on. We thought we had a point to prove and I think we proved a lot of people wrong.
'A lot of people didn't expect it to be like that. They're a big side and a lot thought they would have rolled over the top of us. But we fronted up to them and, if we had been a little bit smarter, we would have beaten them.
'At the end of the day, it's knockout football and it's probably going to cost us in the end.'
All is not lost for Ireland. They take on Samoa at Parramatta next Wednesday, five days after the eagerly-awaited South Pacific 'derby', and still have an outside chance of reaching the semi-final qualifier.
'Hopefully, the Tongan boys feel as sore as we do and Samoa can do us a favour,' said Finnigan.
'You never know, we might go into that game needing to win to go into the semi-final qualifier and, if we play a little bit - probably 10% - better than we did, we might beat them.
'We've got a couple of days off so we're going to relax by the pool and then get stuck into training again. We've been training very hard and I think you could tell that by the way we turned up. We didn't come to mess around.'
