To look back on the statistics, Ireland's Guinness Women's Six Nations defeat to Italy bears an uncanny resemblance to their loss in Parma 12 months ago.
On a day when Ireland could have won twice over, they somehow conspired to lose.
Just as they did a year ago, Ireland dominated large portions of the game at the RDS yesterday, only to lose their composure when they got within touching distance of the Italian line.
Almost 70% of the game was played in the Italian half, with Ireland logging 170 carries in comparison to just 97 for the visitors. Bemand's side had more than double Italy's linebreaks, while the Italians missed 36 tackles.
The difference between the sides was that Giovanni Raineri's side made their chances count, scoring four tries to Ireland's three, and 27 points to 21.
The most damaging tally on the stats sheet from an Irish perspective will be the 27 handling errors and 17 turnovers conceded. Numbers like that will rarely win a Test match.
The Ireland coach pointed to that lack of composure in the immediate aftermath of the game, but as Ireland's players and management now turn towards their next outing against Wales in just under two weeks, they also looked to the positives.
If there is cause for optimism, is that there were signs of an attacking shape coming together. Against France last week, Ireland had little opportunity to move the ball, but on Sunday versus Italy there was a greater intent to get width into their game, and get both Beibhinn Parsons and Katie Corrigan into possession. Parsons, in particular, will look back with huge frustration on a simple knock-on early in the second half when it looked like a try was inevitable.
"If you look at time spent in the right area of the pitch and opportunities created, there's little bits of shape and things we can tidy up on," Bemand (above) said.
While there was more intent to the attack, it came at the expense of execution. At times, Dannah O'Brien and Nicole Fowley rushed into crossfield kicks when the more direct route had previously been effective, with the likes of Sam Monaghan, Aoife Wafer and Brittany Hogan all looking strong when bringing the ball into contact.
"The Italians don't generally give you many line breaks, so you take momentum. So, the girls have clearly moved that on in the week. They looked like they had more attacking prowess with ball in hand.
"The bit you've got to get used to know is in Test match rugby, nobody gives you anything and you've got to really focus on that possession and if it's a 50/50, you've got to be clinical with your decision making, your breakdown work, your ball presentation. So there's a few bits for us to go after. I think we moved it [the attack] forward," the Ireland coach added.
From an individual standpoint, both Corrigan and Wafer offered reason to be excited for the future.
Wafer, who turned 21 last Monday, was the best player on the pitch in the opening 40 minutes. The flanker slotted in at number 8 on attacking scrums and consistently got Ireland over the gainline in their dominant first quarter.
Corrigan looked much more settled on her home debut, and the 18-year-old's try late on from an interception gave the hosts some brief hope of a comeback.
"It was a matter of time before she was going to get one [try]. She is a really accomplished finisher for one so young. We see it in training weekly," Bemand said of Corrigan (below).
"Given the opportunity, she has been working hard on her defence and her positioning where she needs to be, so for her to get that right and intercept for a score is fantastic. Just the positive reinforcement you need. Like a lot of the girls, she will take a lot of confidence out of the good bits today. We will dust ourselves down and give people stuff to shout about. Katie Corrigan scoring tries is one of them.
"She [Wafer] has got a long and bright future ahead of her. She’s incredibly explosive, incredibly fast. We want to get her on the ball as often as we can," Bemand added.
While the Ireland coach was looking for positives, it wasn't a case of being content with a losing bonus-point.
"Defensively, we've done some very good bits today but we've let them in a bit cheaply for me. There is this constant mix of trying to focus on the right stuff but we always focus on both sides of the ball.
"We're an honest group. We'll look hard at that and see what, why and how we didn't score.
"The story doesn't finish here. We have two games back in Ireland and our challenge now is to learn faster than anybody else.
"The group is positive. The group has had a bit of a setback today but it's not defining of a Six Nations. I back our girls to come out, work hard, get looking forward to the next game and come and produce a performance that hopefully we can convert into a winning performance.
"None of these games get any smaller. The Six Nations is a really special competition. We are where we are now. We know we have strengths to our game that we can go to and we know that we have things to work on. They will be the same so it is another opportunity to bring a team over to our shores and get the crowd behind the Irish girls and we can give them a winning performance."
