Scott Bemand says his side have no interest in picking up moral victories, after lamenting a chance that got away against France in Belfast.
Ireland began their Guinness Women's Six Nations campaign with a 27-15 defeat to the French at Kingspan Stadium, but the scoreline ultimately flattered the visitors who scored 10 points in the final eight minutes to survive a big scare.
Ireland had come from 14-0 down to trail 17-15 heading into the final quarter of an hour, with two tries from Aoife Wafer and one for Neve Jones leaving them within reach of a famous upset, and a first win against the French since 2017.
However, they were left to rue three missed conversions from Dannah O’Brien, before France struck with a penalty and a converted try to seize control.
And Bemand admits it will go down as one that got away.
"Absolutely, we were just talking at the end there, and the narrative with the group, we don’t want to be noble losers," the Ireland head coach (below) said.
"We don’t want to put up a good fist of it against a good France team. With ten minutes to go, we felt we could go on and win."
The Englishman was frustrated at the missed opportunity, but he believes the experience will stand to his squad, particularly with a World Cup rematch with the French a possibility later this year.
"They’re a young group still," he said.
"They’ve got to be in those positions.
"We’ve had some experience, like at the end of the New Zealand game in WXV1 when we were able to come back and win it, but coming out here against these Tier 1 Nations and World Cup contenders, we thought it would come down to those last 20 minutes.
"And you’re going to need to have that composure, not belief really, just calmness of thought that you can execute where you want to be on the pitch, how you get there and then you take those opportunities.
"So it does feel like we’ve lost a game we could have been in. And I think them scoring at the end takes the scoreboard away a little bit.
"So we can rue a losing bonus points or what have you, but as a group we’re more disappointed that we weren’t fighting in their 22 to win the game.
"But with a young group and particularly with a World Cup on the horizon, this very well could be a quarter-final. And we said to the group, we want to get to that World Cup and know the next time we meet France, we can beat them.
"It’s obviously not gone our way today but I think we think we can beat them the next time we meet them."
Those thoughts were echoed by co-captain Edel McMahon, who said that she and her players won’t be content with merely competing against the French.
"There are mixed emotions," the flanker said. "When the whistle went, we were all disappointed. It was a game where we were in, we knew we could compete in and actually win.
"And that’s really satisfying to see that’s where we’re at as a squad. We’re not complacent to think, 'Ah, that looks alright, oh we’re competed.’
"We’re actually there to win games. There’s a frustration with that.
"But on the flip side, I’m extremely proud of the girls because we set out in this campaign to be hard to beat, to fire shots and compete with Tier 1 Nations and we did that today."
