Rob Herring cannot but concede that he has "respect" for the scrummaging performance of the England pack, begrudging as the praise might be.
Ireland conceded six scrum penalties and a free kick against England on Saturday, as part of a selection box of infringements that eventually tallied 15.
Despite losing the battle up front, the 32-15 victory showed that rugby is not all about dominance in that area.
Andy Farrell hinted after the game that there would be a strongly worded letter on its way to those in charge of officiating but the main lesson from the review would appear to be that the team is looking inward and must learn to play the referee better.
"We've gone through it all and had feedback from the refs and different coaches and stuff," the Ulster hooker, who came on for Dan Sheehan in the 53rd minute, said.
"On another day, a few of those decisions might have gone our way, they might not.
"But for us, we can't be judging ourselves on the decisions, we have to judge ourselves on the pictures we're painting and the way we manage certain things on the pitch as well.
"We've got a really good scrum, we've shown that over the years, it's getting better and better. It's up there as one of the top scrums, so you don't become a bad scrum overnight.
"Ultimately, we've got to be able to manage the situations and it's a good learning experience for all of us. It's something we can look back on and hopefully move forward from."
Ireland were missing first choice loosehead Andrew Porter and hooker Rónan Kelleher through injury, with Lions regular Tadhg Furlong alongside Dan Sheehan and Cian Healy starting.
Herring, Dave Kilcoyne and Finlay Bealham came off the bench.
He added: "A lot of the scrums, for me, were wheeling around and on any given day, that's a 50-50 decision from a ref. If he starts to see or maybe feels there's a bit of dominance on one side, the decisions start going towards one side.
"You want to keep the scrum square and paint a good, solid picture where there's not as much movement. That's one of the things we need to work on.
"When things aren't going our way and decisions aren't going our way, to almost assure the ref we aren't the team involved or that we're going to get a bit of dominance.
"Our scrum was a mess" - Eddie O'Sullivan didn't pull any punches as he assessed the Irish performance at Twickenham #RTErugby pic.twitter.com/qKGVmMhnVn
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"It will be a good learning experience and hopefully next time when something like that happens, we'll manage it better.
"The one thing we do need to do is that if there's one aspect of the game where we're being penalised a bit, we've got to look after the other aspects of the game.
"We gave a lot of turnovers in open play and some silly penalties which were avoidable. That started compounding a bit of pressure on ourselves."
Asked if he had respect for the tactics of England loosehead Ellis Genge, Herring said: "It's a good question.
"I guess, look, ultimately the decisions went their way and it was a big part of keeping them in the game, so you've got to respect it.
"Obviously, like I said, we can be better at what we do and the way we manage things. Hopefully it evens up the penalty count.
"I don't think they stay in the game as long if we let that happen.
"I think form a performance (point of view), going to 14 men, you have to say fair play to England, their game plan was good and they stuck in there and put a lot of pressure on us.
"You could say fair play, I guess."
Farrell and captain Johnny Sexton both reserved praise for the impact of the bench as Ireland moved clear of 14-man England by scoring 17 unanswered points in the last 14 minutes.
Herring, who carried five times for 20 metres and made two passes, in his cameo, said: "Whatever role I'm asked to do I want to do my best at it.
"This week I was off the bench and I thought everyone on the bench fitted in well and just added to it. It is a squad event and happy enough with the impact we had when we came on.
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"The game has evolved, hasn't it, in the last few years and especially in the way that we are being asked to play as forwards in Ireland.
"We expect to be able to fit in and handle the ball and play to space and all that kind of stuff. It’s something I work very hard on.
"Defence comes to me a lot more naturally than attack but I keep chipping away at it and when I get opportunities I try to get my hands on the ball and see what I can do."
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Watch live coverage of Wales v Italy (2.15pm) and France v England (8pm) this Saturday, 19 March on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.
