Western Force coach Simon Cron was left bitterly disappointed by his side's 28-24 SMARTECH Super Rugby Pacific Round 3 loss to the Queensland Reds at HBF Park on Saturday.
But he was happy to see how much the Culture Round defeat hurt and was confident they will get better because of the hurt.
The Reds snatched victory with a converted try on the final siren.
They scored four tries to the Force three, a double from hometown hero flanker Carlo Tizzano who took his tally to five tries in three games and one from second-rower Darcy Swain.
Fly-half Ben Donaldson was again faultless with the boot, kicking three conversion and a penalty.
Cron told reporters after the game: "Really disappointed for the boys, the team.
"They put themselves in a position to win and let it go.
"This one hurts and you can see it in the faces of the players.
"It really hurts that we've let that one go.
"Thats what I'm happy about.
"If it hurts them they will get up and go again and get better as a team."
He said the side would take some "critical learnings" into their preparation for next Saturday's game against the NSW Waratahs at Allianz Stadium (kick-off 4.35pm) and live on Stan Sport and 9Gem.
Areas that need to improvement are the kick strategy, especially in the last 15 minutes, and backs taking some of the hard carries in attack to take pressure off the forwards, Cron said.
He also said getting off the ground faster at times needed to be reviewed.
"There are things we'll get better at," Cron said.
"We started hot but we've got to stay on the whole game.
"We got a little bit frantic towards the end.
"Pressure does things.
"We'll have a chat about making those decisions and playing more on our terms.
"There was block where we probably didn't come off the line defensively and allowed them to run into us.
"There's a number of areas we will look at and get better, that's the whole point, learn and get better.
"Our expectations of each other are pretty high."
He said Reesjan Pasitoa, in a Force Super jumper for the first time in 1007 days, "did really well."
"It's a big step up," he said.
"He carried really hard down those edges and took those inside shoulders.
"Did the basics really well. He'll be better for the game."
Captain Nic White said it was hard to get past the disappointment.
Not scoring when pressuring the Reds line and giving up early tries after the break were areas he said needed to be fixed.
"We created a lot of opportunities, got really close to the line, and weren't able to capitalise," White said.
"Too often we are a metre or two from the line and we cough up ball.
"A few dropped balls, held up over the line, things we can control and get better at.
"We've got to be calmer and come away with points.
"Another area we've got to look at is we're not coming out of the sheds at half time.
"Last week they put two on and this week they put two on us pretty quickly.
"That was there for us. We lost. We coughed that one up.
"There will be some learnings and it hurts. That will drive us into Monday.
"We've got a tough battle against the Waratahs."
