Declan Kidney was dismayed by Ireland’s performance at Twickenham on Saturday, as his side fell to a 30-9 defeat.
Owen Farrell kicked 20 points for England, while a penalty try and a touchdown from Ben Youngs confirmed the hosts' dominance.
"That was extremely painful,” admitted Kidney. “You never like losing and you never like losing 30-9, especially on St Patrick's Day against England.
"All credit to England, they played well and deserved to win. I know we're better than that, but we were well beaten."
England’s dominance at the scrum was the most notable feature of the clash, with Kidney blaming a neck injury to tighthead Mike Ross for much of Ireland’s woes.
"I wasn't surprised by what happened at the scrum because Mike Ross got a crick on his neck at the first scrum and managed to play for half an hour after that," the coach said.
"Tom Court came on and went valiantly, but our balance was off. That was always on the cards because we have guys who don't have huge tighthead experience playing for Ireland at the moment.
"It's something we'll have to work on and bring more Irish guys through."