Simon Easterby claims Ireland must shake off their hesitancy and take control of their World Cup destiny - starting with Samoa on Saturday.
Easterby believes a return to the Grand Slam winning form of 2018 is within reach as Ireland look for the performance in Fukuoka that will propel them into the quarter-finals with real momentum.
"We've got to back our skills," admitted the Ireland assistant boss.
"But also back to the fundamental things that have stood us in real good stead when we've played big teams, when we've played in tournaments and gone to places and won series.
“We haven't stepped back, we haven't been hesitant, we've gone in there and gone after a team - and I think that has to be the case this weekend.
“We've seen it in patches (at this World Cup) but I don't think we've seen it enough and that's something that we're aware of - but it's something that is an easy fix as well."
Easterby, who himself was a part of Ireland teams who failed to fulfil their potential at World Cups, feels that there are a string of strong performances still in a side that has showed inconsistency throughout this year and into the finals in Japan.
“I certainly think that if we get to this weekend and we hit the ground running there’s no reason why we can’t continue that momentum through the rest of the tournament," he said.
"But we have to be able to put those fundamental things in our game and get them right nearly every time.
"You can’t just do it every now and then because against good teams like Samoa and stronger teams we might play throughout the tournament, you just can’t afford to do it."
After a convincing opening pool win over Scotland, Ireland suffered a serious setback in losing to hosts Japan and then failing to impress against Russia.
“There’s been lots written and spoken and debated about some of the performances - and rightly so because some of them haven’t been good enough," acknowledged Easterby.
"But I’m a firm believer in having the opportunity to go and challenge ourselves and still make a mark.
"Confidence is not an issue but we still have to go there and perform and make sure that we build a performance on the weekend so that we can then take confidence from that, going into potentially a quarter-final."
If you haven't already, be sure to like our Irish Mirror Sport and Irish Mirror GAA pages on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
