Despite a resolute second-half display Ioan Cunningham’s side fell on the wrong side of the result having come up against an outstanding Ireland U20s outfit. But Mann is confident Wales have the ability to improve ahead of next Thursday’s clash with France.
“The boys are all extremely disappointed as we are like one big family but we know we have to bounce back-that is what great teams do,” said Mann.
“It’s international rugby at the of the day, we knew it was going to be tough. There were lots of mistakes-Ireland were clinical and kept building a score.
“I thought we showed really good character to be fair, we all want to work for each other. We need to rest, recover and continue to enjoy everyone’s company in the bubble before going into what is going to be a physical game against France next week- we are determined to be better.”
Wales started their Six Nations campaign strongly with a solid victory over Italy, and have a number of quality players in their ranks. But head coach Cunningham insists they will have to improve their discipline if they are to beat France next week.
“I do believe there were points in the game where we had the opportunity to go after Ireland and we let them off the hook,” said Cunningham.
“There were two line-outs where we gave penalties away, if we hadn’t given those away we possibly could have got some more points on the board and got a foothold in the game.
“We are letting sides off the hook to easily at the moment, we need to fix our discipline problems quickly. I was pleased with the impact our replacements had-particularly Christ Tshiunza and Ollie Burrows.
“That was a positive to take going into our next game against France because we will have to freshen the side up.”
