Kidney, who said he will now consider his position as Ireland’s head coach, felt his side made it too easy for the Italians to inflict a 22-15 loss in Rome’s Stadio Olimpico.

Fly-half Jonny Sexton, Gordon D’Arcy, Simon Zebo, Fergus McFadden, Eoin Reddan and Chris Henry have all spent time on the sidelines during this campaign, with Paul Connell and Tommy Bowe long-term casualties.

Against Italy the crisis deepened with Keith Earls, Luke Marshall and Luke Fitzgerald all limping off, leaving Kidney to deploy flanker Peter O’Mahony on the wing.

But Kidney, whose side’s solitary win came against champions Wales in the opener in Cardiff, wants his team to learn how better to deal with being without key players.

“We aren’t going to lean on that now – we gave away too many penalties,” said Kidney when asked if injuries were to blame for a first-ever loss to Italy in the RBS 6 Nations.

“Part of our set-piece structure gave them some easy outs, especially in the first half, and we did ourselves some damage.

“We have them (injuries), we had more of them against Italy, and we just need to learn how to cope with that.”

Kidney’s future has been the subject of recent speculation, and now the championship has concluded the 53-year-old plans to consider his next move.

“I said all along that I'd concentrate on each game as it came and that's all I've done," he said.

"I wasn't thinking that this could be my last match as coach, all I was concentrating on was getting the win.

"I wanted to get a result, we didn't manage to do that and we'll reflect on it over the coming days and weeks.

"I'd have to sit down and think about whether I want a new contract. These guys are a pleasure to work with, but beyond that I'd have to sit back and think about it."