Ireland head coach Scott Bemand says his players "emptied the tank" in Saturday's 26-7 Women's Six Nations defeat in France.

The sides were level at 7-7 at the break in Clermont but Ireland were made to rue the three first-half tries that were ruled out by the Television Match Official.

Carla Abrez, Anais Grando and Lea Campion scored tires after the restart to stretch their winning run over Ireland to nine matches.

"The tough lesson is that when you get your chances you have to take your points," said Bemand.

"I'm incredibly proud of the effort. We know where we are heading and we just want to keep on getting better.

"You can see the girls have left everything out there and they don't really know how to feel.

"This is a cauldron of fire and for 55 or 60 minutes we've handled it. What we have to do is go deeper in these games and see more impact when we come off the bench."

Captain Erin King said Ireland's players "have a lot of heart" and she was proud of the squad, especially after the first-half performance where they were unfortunate not to lead in France.

"We've been working so hard in training and you can see it out there," said the flanker.

"We're almost there. We keep getting better and better which is so positive."

The Six Nations will have a week off before Ireland will finish with two home fixtures, against Wales in Belfast before a final match with Scotland at the Aviva Stadium.

"We can bring the positives into these last two games and hopefully we can come out in top in them," King added.

"We will come together and we will regroup. We are so close and tightly knit. I think you can tell that we all enjoy each other's company and it's a pleasure to captain these girls."