Josh van der Flier may be one of the senior members of this Irish squad but even for him bad days on home soil such as last Saturday’s Dublin disaster remain rarities. The flanker believes the team have to quickly overcome their misery and start concentrating on what potentially remains on the table this coming Saturday, driven by the emotion of giving an appropriate send-off for retiring Test veterans Cian Healy, Conor Murray and Peter O’Mahony. “That will be the focus I think,” van der Flier said. “We have to put in a performance to be proud of. Obviously for the team, the pride of playing for the country, but also the opportunity of potentially winning the championship. It's probably out of our hands, but we'll definitely be focusing on that. “Then on the emotional side of the week, there'll be a few lads finishing up, last Six Nations and everything, it'll be emotional in that way. No doubt lads will be as fired up as ever to get going for the game. “It is difficult. I think one of the things I find that's really important is you have to get all the misery out of the way on Monday or Tuesday, get all the mistakes, looking over the mistakes (out of the way) so it's not hanging over you for the rest of the week. “I'm thinking there's a couple of things that I made a mistake (on) but I'm not sure. Those things are hanging in the back of your mind and you can't let them drag into next week. “We'll review and then we're switching forward and getting excited for the week to come. Rome is a pretty special place to play.” In some ways, with France in control at the top of the table with one round remaining, a point ahead of England and two in front of Ireland, playing first on “Super Saturday” offers Van der Flier and company an opportunity to set a target for their title rivals to beat. England’s game against Wales in Cardiff follows the Rome contest before the French run out at Stade de France in the final game of the day knowing their destiny is in their own hands. A strong Irish performance earlier in the day may just sow seeds of doubt into the minds of Les Bleus. “We'll try and ignore the other games as best you can but if we're the later game you normally watch the game earlier on," said the flanker. "For sure it's nice to be able to get out early and put out a score to beat.” First, Ireland have to right some wrongs from last Saturday when they paid the price for wasted possession and territory during the first quarter and then allowed France to run riot despite taking the lead at 13-8 early in the second half. It left the home dressing room in a depressing mood and van der Flier said he was not looking forward to the performance review back in camp yesterday morning. As to which aspect of the defeat he thought the focus would be on, the failure to score points in the first 20 minute or the inability to stem the tide of French attacks which saw the visitors scored 34 unanswered points, aided by Calvin Nash’s yellow card on 45 minutes, he said: “My instinct is to say that the latter 30. “France are a quality side and it wasn’t unexpected to play a team of that quality. Obviously we had our opportunities that we would like to take at the start of the game. They’re a tough team. “I felt going into the second half, a bit of momentum at the end of the first half, obviously getting the (Dan Sheehan) try and stuff, we were well set. But credit to France they played really well, it was hard to see what we were doing wrong but they played very well, scored some good tries. I think obviously being down a man never helps against a team of that quality as well.” The 2022 World Rugby player of the year said the Irish squad had the right person in IRFU performance coach Gary Keegan to help them recover from the disappointment from Saturday. “It's something we work a lot on with Gary Keegan. Even just as a group it's the things you practice for. That's why Gary is there, for those moments," he added. “From my point of view, I remember Isa Nacewa when I was chatting to him, he was always brilliant to be around for tough games, big games. He was always there or thereabouts. I remember him saying he always wants to win, like hammer the other team, but in the back of his mind he's always hoping we get to a point where we're like 30 points down and have to win from there, backs against the wall and that kind of thing. “That's the mindset I'd always try and think of and I know a lot of the lads are the same. They are all competitive, they relish a big challenge. That was kind of the atmosphere I felt. It was very calm and lads were getting excited to get back at them again. “In this group particularly, it's quite a positive place in those situations. The natural human instinct is not positive, I suppose.”