Simon Easterby praised his side's determination as they made a winning start to their Guinness Six Nations title defence.
Ireland got their three-in-a-row bid up and winning with a dominant second half performance seeing them hold off England 27-22, a scoreline that flattered the visitors, who scored two tries in the final five minutes to pick up a losing bonus-point.
It was a first game in charge for interim Ireland head coach Simon Easterby as he steps up to the top job while Andy Farrell is away on British and Irish Lions duty.
And the new boss was delighted at his side's persistence to eventually pull clear in the final quarter.
"We had to find a way," Easterby (below) told RTÉ Sport. I thought we played well in patches in the first half, we didn't quite get our accuracy right, and that's probably why the scoreline was in their favour.
Ireland found themselves 10-5 down at half time after an error-strewn 40 minutes that was frustratingly reminiscent of their Autumn Nations Series campaign.
There were 15 handling errors in that opening period, with just seven in the second half of the game.
And the Ireland coach said that improved accuracy was key to victory.
"I think the first half, it's first round of the Six Nations, England here in Dublin, it's always going to be a bit of an arm-wrestle. It's nothing we didn't expect.
"We felt at half time if we did a few things better, that we would get the rewards, and we did that.
"Like I say, our accuracy. We had lots of opportunities in their 22, but didn't quite make the most of them. They defended well and made it tough for us.
"I think on reflection we'll be happy with the way our setpiece went, and we set up some lovely opportunities through that.
"Up until the last couple of minutes, defence was OK. We know we need to be better next weekend," he added.
Easterby was pleased with his out-half tandem, which saw Sam Prendergast (above) start at 10, before being replaced by Jack Crowley with 22 minutes to play and the game still in the melting pot.
Prendergast started with some loose kicking but did grow into the game in the second quarter, contributing to a number of linebreaks, but was left frustrated with two missed conversions.
Crowley, for his part, drove the win home as he did against Australia, while he kicked two conversions from two.
"I thought Sam was excellent at times, he was really created a couple of nice opportunities.
We felt like in the Autumn that Jack came on an impacted the Australia game and he did the same again and finished the game off well, Easterby said.
Ireland's tighthead stocks could be down even further with Finlay Bealham going off with what looked like an ankle injury in the second half, and is now a doubt for next Sunday's trip to Scotland.
Easterby was non-committal about the prospect of Tadhg Furlong returning from a calf injury, which could throw rookie Thomas Clarkson in for a start at Murrayfield.
But the Ireland coach says their strong second half leaves them high on confidence for the second step on their quest for an unprecedented third title in a row.
"I think what it does do is it sets us up for what will be a hell of a challenge in Murrayfield.
"It's never easy going up there, they're coming off the back of a win as well but we need to make sure we get better at the things we know we can and it will be important that we don't deviate too far away from what's worked for us this week.
"But it's an important place to go and get a result, it's somewhere where we've had a little bit of success in the last few years but we know it's going to be incredibly tough."
