Wales held a narrow 7-5 lead at half-time before succumbing to the 40-14 defeat.
“I said to the team for us to ignore the score, we’re going through a process here,” Cunningham said.
“I thought our first half defensive effort was excellent. I think there are areas where we can learn and get better, try and get a bit more territory in the game and hold onto the ball for a bit longer.
“We’ve shown when we do we can create opportunities and score points.
“We are delighted we had the opportunity to expose some of that new talent to Test level rugby, we’ve grown some leadership in giving Keira [Bevan] the captaincy, I thought she was great tonight.
“But we’ve got Alex Callender, Carys Cox, Carys Phillips, Georgia Evans, Abbie Fleming to come back into the group, and Hannah Jones too.
“The depth that we want to keep growing in the side creates competition, which is healthy.”
