Johnny Sexton admits the hurt of losing to hosts Japan will stay with Ireland throughout their World Cup bid.
But the 34-year-old has dismissed the knockers who believe their chances of lifting the Webb Ellis trophy are shot.
Speaking at the squad’s new base in Kobe, the World Player of the Year laid out his reasons why Joe Schmidt’s charges will still be a force in the tournament.
He claimed it was a “blessing in disguise” that their defeat to Japan came in the pool and not the quarter-final stage.
Ireland came through the pool in the last two World Cups without suffering a loss but then fell at the first hurdle in the knockout stages.
This defeat, however, gives them the chance to make amends as Sexton outlined how Ireland will channel the pain of their Shizuoka slip-up.
“With a five-day turnaround, it’s probably a good thing this week,” he said. “Guys want to get on the pitch as soon as possible.
“A week’s a long time in sport – how high we were last week to how low we were here. We want to get back on the other side of that as soon as possible.
“We can take the hurt into this week a little bit but it’s going to stay with us until the end of this tournament.”
Having watched on in frustration due to the quad injury he suffered in the win over Scotland, Sexton is confident Ireland will bounce back.
He said: “At one stage we won 23 out of 26 games and had lots of doubters. You’re always going to have doubters in this game.
“But ultimately you want to do everyone proud, make the people of Ireland proud, make your family watching at home proud.
“And ultimately the guys that you’re closest to are your team-mates. They’re the guys you have to look at at the end of the day.
“They gave it everything on Saturday, no one can deny that. No one can point the finger and say there was a lack of effort.
“It was wholehearted and, if we flip those margins and mistakes that we spoke about, it can be very different.
“Even at the end, we were one metre out out from their line. We scored against Scotland in those situations three times out of three but we didn’t take the one against Japan.”
Sexton claimed that the defeat, which has surely dented squad morale, has not damaged the belief they can go beyond the last eight.
Russia now await on Thursday and then comes Samoa before a potential quarter-final that would probably now be against the All Blacks.
Sexton is ready to fire his colleagues up and said: “When you’re a senior player, that’s your job all the time but even more so when you’ve come off the back of a very disappointing defeat.
“The team will be very different this week but there are going to be guys who are backing up three games.
“That’s the nature of a World Cup. We’ve had it on the Lions tours where you’ve had to play three in a week.
“It can sometimes be tough but you can get into a bit of a rhythm and a routine, the games work out in your favour.
“Hopefully I’ll go out this Thursday with the boys and we can put in a performance we can be proud of – and, more importantly, put us in a good position to get into the quarter-final.”
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