Down but not quite out, Caelan Doris insists there is more to come from this Ireland team.
The back-to-back Guinness Six Nations champions will more than likely sign off their campaign with just a Triple Crown, although they retain an outside shot at the title should both France and England slip up.
Italy stand in their way today but even a handsome win by the visitors will come with a sense of regret about what might have been.
Add to that the retirement of senior players Cian Healy, Peter O'Mahony and Conor Murray, and the likelihood that many of this squad will be with the Lions this summer and not on the Irish tour, there’s a bit of a 'last day of school' feel to the occasion.
However, Doris believes there’s still plenty to achieve over the next few years.
"Definitely, from an individual point of view, you look at any one player and there’s no way we’ve maxed out our potential," said the 26-year-old, who will win his 51st cap.
"I feel I still have a lot more in me and the same across the board with a lot of the lads.
"Getting our [individual] performances up 5-10% will contribute a lot to getting a better team performance but collectively I feel there’s a lot more growth in us."
Part of the regeneration centres around a burgeoning out-half battle between Leinster’s Sam Prendergast and Munster’s Jack Crowley, who starts today having coming off the bench in the wins over England, Scotland and Wales, and the loss to France.
"There’s quite a bit of onus on the 10s in our environment in running the attack, in liaising with Goodie [Andrew Goodman, attack coach]," said the number 8 when asked how Crowley had led the team during the week.
"He’s done a great job.
"Sam’s been very good in the first few weeks but Crowler as well.
"They are both confident lads, they both are capable of taking a walk-through or having attack points mid-training.
"They both have good heads on their shoulders, yeah, [Sam has] been good this week."
Irish players have admitted that last week’s 42-27 home loss to Les Bleus, who host Scotland this evening at 8pm (live on RTÉ2), stung, and Doris (above) hopes that the team can use that hurt as motivation for today’s clash in Rome, and then sit back and hope for the best.
He said: "It’s about channeling the frustration and disappointment from last week into a strong performance and there is a feeling that we can produce our best performance yet over here which will right a few of the wrongs.
"Through a good performance this weekend we can come off on a bit of a high.
"We’re ready for quite a battle, we know it’s going to be hard work but we are looking forward to it.
"All we can control is our best performance, getting maximum points and putting ourselves in the best position, and hoping that Wales and Scotland can do a bit of magic for us."
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