And having seen the Italians concede numerous penalties to allow their Tongan opponents back into the game late on the Frenchman insists such errors must be addressed ahead of their clash with the All Blacks in Rome.

“We can do better, we know that, but we don’t see this as a negative result,” said Brunel.

“Maybe we didn’t play our best rugby but if we could win every time we play ugly it would be nice.

“It’s always difficult to get the engine running the way you want it to at the start of an international series.

“Our first half was a little difficult but we’re happy with our second half, and how we went about the match in general but we still have a few weak points.

“We gave too many points away and too many penalties. That’s something we have to fix.”

Brunel’s thoughts were mirrored by Italy prop Lorenzo Cittadini who got the scoring underway with a try at the start of what was to be a man-of-the-match performance.

Cittadini is all too aware of the step up in class awaiting his side in the Italian capital but he insisted starting with a win was a perfect start to their run of three internationals.

Cittadini said: "I'm happy - because above all we have won, despite having committed a lot of errors, which we will work on in the week.

"We know that we have to do better next week, however I couldn't have hoped for better than this."