Ireland were rocked by the tempo set by England in the opening two minutes as Jonny May scored a superb early try.

The holders recovered to briefly take the lead but could not match England's pace and power over the 80 minutes.

"When you don't start well and you're seven points down after a minute and a half it's not ideal," said Cooney.

"I think that will probably be one of our emphasises in training, to start well, because it makes a huge difference when you've got tempo and momentum early on."

Head coach Joe Schmidt also admitted his side had paid the price for a sluggish start to the game as Ireland slumped to their first Six Nations defeat at home during the New Zealander's six seasons in charge.

The world number two side narrowly avoided an opening-round loss in last year's championship when Johnny Sexton's injury-time drop-goal rescued a win over France in Paris and Schmidt has warned that Ireland must learn to get into their stride immediately.

"Looking further ahead into the World Cup, we've got to hit the ground running," said Schmidt.

"In November, Argentina wasn't great but we stepped it up the following week (against New Zealand). Even last year in the Six Nations we weren't great against France and we built our way through the competition and finished it off really strongly.

"We've tended to finish Six Nations off pretty strongly, the Six Nations that we won in France or in Scotland, but we've got the able to start better right from the start."

Bittersweet defeat

Cooney's Six Nations debut proved to be a bittersweet moment for the Ulster scrum-half, who scored Ireland's late consolation try within minutes of his introduction.

The 28-year-old replaced the tiring Conor Murray in the 76th minute and three minutes later he found himself in the perfect position to accept Sean Cronin's pass and cross the line for his first Ireland try.

"It would have meant a lot to my family as well," he acknowledged.

"I would have grown up watching the Six Nations and they're the big games or the big moments so I was pretty emotional on the bus going to the game and coming towards the end I didn't know if I was going to get on so it was nice to get those few minutes.

"But there was no pressure on me so it was easy to come on in those type of games when you're losing, it's completely different when you're coming on in a tight game or you're starting a game so I'm hoping to get some of those tests in time."

Cooney replaced Conor Murray in the 76th minute of the loss to England

The former Leinster and Connacht player belatedly made his debut for Ireland in June 2017 but he has struggled to secure his place in the squad because of injuries and competition for places behind Murray, who remains Ireland's first-choice scrum-half.

"I was smiling during the anthems because during those hard times when I was injured it was always something that I had envisaged and I always knew I'd get to," added Cooney.

"So for me it was pretty emotional because when you set a big goal and you're injured and you're nowhere near it - I was third or fourth choice at the time - I always believed that I could get there."

Scotland will be on a high

This week's match against Scotland will also be of significance to Cooney, whose father is from Glasgow and many of his extended family still live in the area.

Scotland are the early leaders in this year's championship following their bonus-point victory against Italy in Edinburgh and Gregor Townsend's side will once again have home advantage in round two.

"It's a big one then to go to Murrayfield after they won against Italy so they'll be on a high now and they've got two home games so it's important for them," said Cooney.

"It couldn't be a bigger game for us to go away and really perform well and that's a challenge but there would be no better place to go and get a win."