'We'll learn from today' - Greg McWilliams staying positive after Japan defeat

Ireland head coach Greg McWilliams says the positives of their summer tour to Japan far outweigh the negatives, despite falling to a 29-10 defeat in this morning's second Test in Tokyo.

Having run in nine tries in last week's 57-22 victory, Ireland struggled for any momentum, with the 19-point defeat a fair reflection of the performance.

In contrast to the previous Saturday, it was the tourists who looked the better team early on, Natasja Behan's try after just four minutes giving Ireland a perfect start.

But ill-discipline allowed Japan territory and possession for large parts of the first half as they built a 12-5 lead, before three more tries in the second half killed things off.

In spite of the flat performance, McWilliams remained upbeat on the tour as a whole, maintaining he was pleased with the depth he's added to his squad.

"You're always disappointed, we didn't fire any shots, we couldn't get a foothold in the game, but there is a bigger picture," he said.

"We capped nine new players, checked our depth. Last week the players were excellent and on task, and it was hard to get back over to it. This week the players were tired during the week, it's not an excuse, it's a really good learning for us.

"We talked to the players about having to separate the emotion from the process and realise there are lots of good things.

"We'll learn from today. We were ill-disciplined in the first half and we'll learn from that. Momentum in sport is a funny thing and we struggled to gain any momentum. When we had a little bit of it, it didn't go our way, and we need to own that."

The head coach added that on balance, he believes Ireland's first overseas summer tour has been a success.

"If you said to me beforehand that we would go 1-1 in the