Declan Kidney has insisted that Ireland can finish their Six Nations campaign strongly despite back-to-back defeats.
Ireland face France next weekend, before finishing the tournament with a clash against Italy.
The coach told the Irish Independent: "The trouble is when you are that attack-orientated, you leave yourself open to a bit more criticism that we're just not playing that pressure game totally and we need to trust in our defence.
"We're not too far away. When we play against France, if they get a win over what will be a very good French team, they'll blossom. Then we'll have those injured lads coming back in and we'll have a real strong unit.
"We probably haven't taken the opportunities that have come our way in the last 20 minutes. That's one of the things that is under our control. There are other things I know we can do to get better."
Jonathan Sexton, Simon Zebo and Gordon D'Arcy have all missed game time through injury during this year's tournament.
Ireland sit fourth in the Six Nations table.
