After making seven changes from the team that were outclassed by Wales, Andy Robinson was rewarded with a much improved display but he admits there’s still a lot of hard work ahead of them.

“The three tries that we conceded again were pretty soft scores for Ireland to get and that’s an area we really do have to work at,” he said.

“However, in terms of the way we played I was happy with the whole attitude and the way we went about it. We just had to work that little bit harder.

“Once we got up and running, stopping the Irish making the yards they were making, then we got into the game, but we have to play for the whole 80 minutes and we didn’t, therefore we ended up losing the game.

“You’ve got to deal with everything that’s thrown at you in that 80 minutes and we didn’t do enough.”