Sunday 30 November 2014 22:17, UK
Rhys Webb hopes that Wales will ‘come out firing’ in the Six Nations after Saturday's confidence boosting win over South Africa.
Full-back Leigh Halfpenny scored four penalties as the hosts claimed a 12-6 victory in Cardiff, their first success against the Springboks for 15 years.
This tense triumph also ended an abysmal run of 22 defeats in a row at the hands of South Africa, New Zealand and Australia, giving Wales a much needed lift ahead of the Six Nations opener against England on February 6.
Scrum-half Webb said: "We are just happy to pick it up, and we will go back to our regions now and hopefully come out firing for the Six Nations. It's definitely a good springboard.
"We targeted the four games (in the autumn series), but we slipped up against Australia and New Zealand in games that we could have won. Everyone was positive after the performance against New Zealand, and we took it into the game with South Africa and came away with a victory.
We pushed New Zealand for 69 minutes last week, and to finally get that win against one of these teams feels pretty special.
"We will learn a lot from the campaign, particularly in respect of playing for the full 80 minutes. That's the big thing for us, playing and concentrating for the whole game. We did that against South Africa.
"We slipped up against Australia and New Zealand, but to be fair, we haven't been far away in those games. We pushed New Zealand for 69 minutes last week, and to finally get that win against one of these teams feels pretty special."
Webb was full of praise for half-back partner Dan Biggar, who delivered a man-of-the-match performance during a resolute defensive display at the Millennium Stadium.
“Dan has been on fire in the last couple of games, putting us in the right places," said Webb.
"He is a big voice on the field and he's a good leader as well. Like me, he tells the forwards where he wants them to go and how we want to finish the game.
"We came together in a bit of a huddle in the last 10 minutes to say what we needed to do. Everyone bought into it, and we came away with the victory. It is such a relief, but it has been coming."
Captain Sam Warburton insisted there was no sense of surprise after finally ending the miserable run against southern hemisphere opposition
“It does not feel like a monkey off your back now," he said. "It has always felt as if we have been able to achieve a win against one of these three sides, and that's why I don't feel surprised that we have won.
"The amount of work we put in behind the scenes might surprise quite a lot of people about how hard these group of players work.
"I always thought it was a matter of when, not if, and I never doubted the ability of our team.”
