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Kobe - Andy Farrell believes Ireland can take heart from what happened to England back in 2007 as they look to get their bid for Rugby World Cup glory in Japan back on track.
The Irish found themselves on the end of a stunning upset with a 19-12 loss to tournament hosts Japan on Saturday that ignited interest in this World Cup and threw Pool A open.
Nevertheless wins over Russia in Kobe on Thursday and Samoa on October 12 could now see Ireland into a quarter-final likely to be against either reigning champions New Zealand or South Africa.
Meanwhile defence coach Farrell said there were lessons Ireland could learn from the England team he played for at the 2007 World Cup in France.
England were hammered 36-0 by South Africa in the pool phase only to face the Springboks again in the final.
Mark Cueto, the England wing, had a try controversially disallowed as South Africa won 15-6 but Farrell said the way the Red Rose brigade bounced back from their pool thumping provided Ireland with a template in Japan.
"The Japan defeat is a setback, but it's also something you can use in the right manner," Farrell told reporters at the Kobe Misaki Stadium on Wednesday.
"If you look at the last two World Cups, South Africa losing to Japan, then going on to lose the semi-final 20-18 (to New Zealand).
"Then in 2011 France seemed to be in disarray throughout that competition and there's a debate on whether they should have won the final (against New Zealand) or not.
"And even in 2007 I was part of the England squad that had a thrashing off South Africa. There was a bit of turmoil in that camp but then we managed to get to the final, and there was some debate about a try that was disallowed."
Former dual code international Farrell added: "So you can use these things to your advantage. They are not ideal, but if you use them to your advantage then you can grow.
"After a couple of days, we understand the reasons why we lost, we're in good spirits, back on track -- and ready to prove a point."
Farrell added Ireland had engaged in rugby league type training to stay onside against Russia.
This came after head coach Joe Schmidt lamented referee Angus Gardner's award of several penalties against his side in the Japan match, which tournament chiefs later told him were incorrect.
But Farrell insisted there were improvements Ireland could make themselves.
"If you look at that bonus point at the end with Keith Earls chasing back at the death (against Japan), and the three minutes just before half-time when we kept them out there as well," he said.
"So there was some heroic stuff from certain lads, but it's not the usual defensive pressure performance you often see from ourselves.
"The stuff that was going on in and around the breakdown is something we need to take care of ourselves."
Thursday's game against Russia in Kobe is scheduled for 12:15 SA time.
Teams:
Ireland
15 Rob Kearney, 14 Andrew Conway, 13 Garry Ringrose, 12 Bundee Aki, 11 Keith Earls, 10 Johnny Sexton (captain), 9 Luke McGrath, 8 Jordi Murphy, 7 Peter O'Mahony, 6 Rhys Ruddock, 5 Jean Kleyn, 4 Tadhg Beirne, 3 John Ryan, 2 Niall Scannell, 1 Dave Kilcoyne
Replacements: Sean Cronin, Andrew Porter, Tadhg Furlong, Iain Henderson, CJ Stander, Joey Carbery, Jack Carty, Jordan Larmour
Russia
15 Vasily Artemyev (captain), 14 German Davydov, 13 Igor Galinovskiy, 12 Kirill Golosnitskiy, 11 Denis Simplikevich, 10 Ramil Gaisin, 9 Dmitry Perov, 8 Tagir Gadzhiev, 7 Anton Sychev, 6 Bogdan Fedotko, 5 Andrey Garbuzov, 4 Andrey Garbuzov, 3 Kirill Gotovtsev, 2 Evgeny Matveev, 1 Andrei PolivalovSubstitutes: 16 Stanislav Selskii, 17 Valery Morozov, 18 Vladimir Podrezov, 19 Andrey Ostrikov, 20 Evgeny Elgin, 21 Sergey Ianiushkin, 22 Roman Khodin, 23 Vladimir Ostroushko
