Scott Bemand has backed his side to learn from their chastening second half experience against England in Cork, as they target two more wins in their Guinness Six Nations campaign.
For a short while at Virgin Media Park Ireland dared to dream as they took took a shock 5-0 lead courtesy of Amee-Leigh Costigan's first half try, and England's 7-5 half-time lead was a fair reflection on a hugely entertaining first half.
The Red Roses blew the doors off Ireland in the second half, with John Mitchell's side showing their class with six more tries for a 49-5 win, and a scoreline that doesn't truly reflect the balance of play.
"Initially, it's disappointing to see a game go away from you in a second-half," the Ireland head coach said, adding that he believes his team gave England the toughest game they've faced in some time.
"As we pick through the bones of it, there were questions asked of an English team that have not been asked of them recently. We got them under pressure, they’ve had to go back into the dressing-room and rediscover how they play the game. Because we had them under pressure.
"We kicked really well in the first half but then we have two errors, there’s an out on the full and we’re struggling to get out of the 22 and then they score seven points. We could have easily have been 5-0 up at half-time. It’s tough to see a game going away from you in the second half."
While there was still a 44-point margin between the sides, it was a night-and-day performance to their previous meeting at Twickenham, where England scored 14 tries to trounce Ireland 88-10.
And Bemand has promised his side won't be content with their first half showing, as they look to finish with wins away to Wales and Scotland.
"It’s a step forward from where we were a year ago, but there’s more to come. I said to the players at the end, this isn’t the end of the Six Nations. There’s two massive games to come.
"So what we have to do is to take the learnings from this really, really quickly. And not to get too down on it, keep your heads up high, understand what you did well and what worked well earlier in the game. Because there are two away games we need to go and win," he added.
A record 7,754 people came through the gates for a standalone Irish women's Six Nations game on home soil, and they were treated to a special moment when Costigan latched onto Dannah O'Brien's kick to give Ireland a 5-0 lead.
"I felt the energy from the crowd once I scored, the cheers," the Ireland captain (above) told RTÉ Sport.
"It's about bringing joy, that’s what sport is. It’s about bringing joy to people’s lives and I’m glad I could do that for the few moments.
And the Ireland captain believes Ireland will only get better after their experience in Cork this afternoon.
"I told them [her team-mates] that we would learn more from that than England did today. Now its about how we take those learnings and move forward with them.
"We can’t drink it in too long because this is sport and we have to bounce back from this. We’ve got to learn very quickly and we have the character in this group to do that. We have to get back into camp on Tuesday and go hard at it because that’s what we are about."
