Brian O'Driscoll's side face Australia next Saturday

"When we got within three points of them we felt we had them on the rack.

"I'm sure it wasn't vintage rugby and the stats will show there were a lot of scrums for knock-ons," said O'Driscoll.

"We know if we put phases together we are capable of beating any team. We showed good spirit but it would've been easier if we weren't 17 points down."

SCRUM V VIEW Ireland definitely seem to have moved up a level on this tour. TR Scrum V: Have your say

"This side has great character and we managed to score two tries and play ourselves back into the game.

"We just needed one break to go our way but sadly we made the errors at the end and they capitalised.

"At times it was a liability to have the ball in hand and we tried to make our defence strong.

"I'm sure it was not the most attractive rugby to watch; unfortunately we came out on the wrong side of the result again."

The game was there to be won, all we needed to do was go and win it Paul O'Connell

Irish coach Eddie O'Sullivan added: "Games like this give you a lot of confidence that you can stay with good teams. I wouldn't panic about having to play New Zealand any more."

Try scorer Paul O'Connell said: "The game was there to be won, all we needed to do was go and win it but we couldn't do that.

"We lost our concentration late in the second half and I think we need to play our own style more when we're in close games against big teams."