Brittany Hogan believes Ireland are just a few tweaks away from breaking their Guinness Women's Six Nations losing streak, as attention now turns to next week's meeting with Wales in Cork.
With the championship on a down-week, the Irish players were given a couple of days off following Sunday's 27-21 loss to Italy at the RDS, with their next outing against Wales at Virgin Media Park on Saturday 13 April.
Having trailed 27-14 late in the second half, Ireland almost staged a dramatic comeback when Katie Corrigan's try on 77 minutes brought them within six points, and while they launched one final attack on the Italian line, the visitors secured a turnover to inflict a seventh straight championship defeat on Scott Bemand's side.
But while Ireland had to rally in the final 10 minutes to secure a losing bonus-point, the reality is that it was a game they should have won.
The hosts dominated possession and territory, making 18 entries to the Italian 22 for an average of just 1.17 points per visit. Italy, meanwhile, were clinical with limited opportunities to attack, scoring 27 points from just seven entries to Ireland's 'Redzone'.
According to the revised stats provided by the Six Nations, Ireland's handling errors topped out at a whopping 28, as they continually left scoring opportunities behind.
And number 8 Hogan (below) says they were hugely disappointed by their lack of composure.
"It's just the composure element, we have to make sure that whenever we're there, we're not the ones under pressure," she said.
"We're 10, 20 meters from the tryline, that's whenever Italy are under pressure, under the pump. We have to capitalise on that and make sure we stick to our system. If we have to slow it down, we need to slow it down, but we're in control there. Going there, we have to be a little bit more composed in that area.
"Like, the pressure is on them, we're on their 22, so we just need to compose ourselves and we didn't do that today.
"We were still a wee bit frantic in our own 22, the unforced errors etc, so I suppose we have to get much better at problem solving and getting good go-forward, so we don't keep going backwards."
Hogan was one of Ireland's better performers at the RDS, topping her side's tackle count with 15, and making more attacking ruck arrivals (29) than any other player, while she also carried the ball 10 times for an impressive 63 metres.
And the Ulster back row says while their inability to convert pressure into points was frustrating, they can see the improvements in their attacking shape and structure, ahead of the visit of Wales next week.
"Overall, on a positive note, improvement from last week so we use that as a stepping stone, a new line in the grass and build for Wales.
"We played in the right areas of the pitch, and whenever we got that go-forward, stretched and stretched, so whenever we got it to the edge we certainly stressed the Italians.
"You could tell on their defensive line we had created those gaps and created those opportunities, but just didn't execute on them. But it was whenever we were in the 22, it was a little bit harder.
"Certainly our set-piece this week was very much improved. Our scrums, our lineout execution, we got a maul try, it was very much improved from our French week, that's certainly an area.
"Our ambitious attack, we went to the edge a lot more, got Beibhinn [Parsons] onto the ball, Katie [Corrigan] onto the ball, so it's just trying to make sure that we utilise those areas of the game, our strengths of our team, and that's what gave us those exciting scores.
"We just need to make sure that we keep doing those. Whenever we get into the 22, just tighten up a wee bit," she added.
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