Italy gifted too many easy points to France in their Six Nations opener, but Tommaso Allan believes his side can rally from their 29-24 loss.

The Azzurri fell short of a famous victory in Rome against the reigning champions after Matthieu Jalibert's late try saw Les Bleus scrape the win.

Having been the competition's regular whipping boys for many years, Italy showed further signs of progress under coach Kieran Crowley in the narrow loss.

Allan acknowledged it was a difficult result to take after leading late in proceedings, but stressed there will be more improvement to come.

"It's quite tough to swallow this defeat," he told ITV. "We had our chances. In the first half, we [made] too many errors.

"We gave 19 points to the French off our mistakes. We have to find our balance of execution. We will be more diligent the more we do.

"There are a lot of positives to take from this. We are very confident for next week's game. It's small margins."

Breathtaking finish in Rome! @FranceRugby take their first step towards defending their Grand Slam with a hard-fought victory against the superb @Federugby .#GuinnessSixNations | #ITAvFRA pic.twitter.com/F0k7sINWGe

— Guinness Six Nations (@SixNationsRugby) February 5, 2023

Allan missed a penalty with six minutes to go which would have trimmed the gap to just two points in the closing stages.

The fly-half acknowledged a successful effort there would have changed the complexion of the game and tasked himself to deliver going forward.

"I need to make those kicks," he added. "Next time, we can kick to win as well. We're improving every week.

"We have to start winning as well now. We know we can win. We showed some good rugby."