Ireland coach Scott Bemand admitted his side lacked a clinical edge, as they fell to a first ever home defeat to Italy in the Guinness Women's Six Nations.
A Katie Corrigan try on 78 minutes, which was converted by Dannah O'Brien, briefly gave Ireland hope of a miraculous comeback, but it would have been a cruel blow on the Italians, who were ruthless with limited attacking opportunities as they held on for a 27-21 victory.
"As a group, we've said we go for performance, and we definitely haven't shied away about talking about winning," the Ireland head coach said.
"As we sit here now we're pretty disappointed not to win the game. There are plenty of moments in that, that gave us opportunities to do that,"
While the statistics show Ireland dominated possession and territory in front of a record crowd of 6,605 at the RDS, they were made to pay for a sloppy attacking display, with 27 handling errors committed.
"I think it's probably a little bit of confidence and belief, that you can actually see it out. The Italians, we knew what game they bring, they wont give up, they're dogged and determined, and you have to go out and beat them. They don't give up in tackles, and you look at the possession, the territory, how much time we spent in their 22.
"We just got to learn to be under that pressure and be clinical under that pressure."
Centre Enya Breen, who was making her first Irish appearance for a year after an injury-ridden 12 months, believes while many of those handling errors were forced by good Italian pressure, Ireland have to accept their mistakes.
"It was a bit of both," Breen said.
"Mistakes on our side, on another day those would stick, but credit to the Italians, they put us under a lot of pressure. Maybe that was the cause of it.
"Unfortunately, that's the winning and losing of the game, isn't it? If you take those opportunities you're on the other side and it's a very different mood in here.
"When we got on top, we just couldn't finish it out. Unfortunately, that happens, but we'll take the learnings from that. On another day those will stick, those tries are scored and like I said we'd be on the other end of it."
On several occasions those mistakes were compounded by further mistakes, which repeatedly took the sting out of the Irish attack.
One of the turning points came on 28 minutes when the hosts had an opportunity to move into a 10-5 lead when they won a penalty to the right of the posts. Ireland turned down the shot at goal in favour of an adventurous kick to the far touchline, which Dannah O'Brien dropped short, before a Beibhinn Parsons knock-on shortly after led to an Italian penalty, which provided the platform for Valeria Fedrighi to score the second Italian try, which put them 12-7.
Bemand, however, backed his players' decision to go for the corner after the game.
"We try and let the girls make the on-pitch decision and do what's right at that point," he said.
"Clearly at that point in the game the girls felt dominant and on top, and where we want to take our game is we want to be nudging those into a corner.
"We want to be taking tries, not threes, so we leave it to the strat [strategy] group, we trust the strat group, and would we do it again? We were dominant at that point, it was probably the right thing to do."
And although Bemand stuck by his players for their aggressive approach, he admitted their execution needed to improve ahead of their meeting with Wales on 13 April in Cork.
"Yeah, it does feel like a missed opportunity, but those are the experiences and those are the learnings we've got to take.
"We'll dust ourselves down, we have two big games back in Ireland, and obviously the one away in England. We have some big games to come, and if we're not winning we're learning and we'll go after the learning.
"Of course there's bits in the game, there's always a few moments in a game where it can go one way or the other, and I think we probably just had a few too many of those today, so yeah, it does feel like a missed opportunity."
Ireland 21-27 Italy
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) March 31, 2024
Ireland captain Sam Monaghan believes the side took "a step forward" in their loss to Italy, who recorded their first win on Irish soil in the Women's Six Nations. pic.twitter.com/w3ywTWepNJ
