Italy battled against Ireland next up but slipped to what was to be their biggest defeat of this year’s Championship – 42-10 at the Aviva Stadium.

Wales inflicted a fourth straight defeat – 24-3 once again on the road – but they did avoid the Wooden Spoon by downing Scotland 13-6 in Rome on Saturday.

Brunel is all too aware that their defeats were down to a failure to last the distance but he believes they can slowly but surely turn that around.

“I think what we have to do is take all the positives from every game we have played and put it together,” said Brunel. “Only like that will we be able to build a winning side.

“We have grown week by week and made less mistakes as the tournament progressed. There are margins for improvement and there is a good base for the future.

“Right now, we don’t have the capacity to impose our play for 80 minutes but against Scotland we were on the right path. We will continue to grow if we work like we are doing.”