Wales coach Wayne Gatland insisted his side is still on course to win the Six Nations championship following their 24-16 success away to Italy.
Wales were forced to hold on grimly in the second period as, with the wind behind them, Italy pushed their visitors hard but a second consecutive away win has got the Welsh camp feeling bubbly.
Having lost 26-19 at home to England in their tournament opener, Wales won 24-6 in Scotland two weeks ago.
"It still puts us in contention for the championship, we've got a big game against Ireland at home and then France," said Gatland.
"It's a tough competition and it's about building momentum and confidence. We've had two tough wins away in the last two games and next we're at the Millennium Stadium at home and we want to get a result from our next performance."
When Wales play Ireland in two weeks, they should have Scarletts centre Jonathan Davies back.
"John could have played (against Italy), he's important to us for later in the championship so it wasn't worth that risk in playing him.
"He could have pulled his hamstring and been out for the next games, we weren't going to take that risk.
"We could have put (James) Hook at 10 and brought a centre in but it's a pretty tough place to throw a young centre in and we went for experience."
Italy scored the first try through Gonzalo Canale before both Morgan Stoddart and Sam Warburton went over for the Welsh, who led 21-11 at half-time.
But a try from Italy captain Sergio Parisse in the second period had Wales reeling until Hook's late drop goal gave them breathing space.
Italy missed several kicks at goal while Stephen Jones proved more reliable with the boot.
Lee Byrne also went over the line in the first half but that was disallowed for a forward pass by Shane Williams.
"It's a tough place to come and get a result so I'm very pleased with the result," said Gatland.
"We made it difficult for ourselves, we gave away a couple of soft tries but I'm very pleased with the result.
"We looked realy sharp with ball in hand and perhaps if we hadn't given away a soft try from a poor pass.
"I thought the touch judge's call on the forward pass was a very tight call, (if it had stood) we could have gone out and expressed ours more in the second half."
Gatland admitted it had been tougher than he expected.
"We've given away a couple of soft tries which has kept Italy in the game, perhaps it was a bit of a confidence thing," he said.
"Italy are a tough team to beat here, they're a very big side. Italy played exceptionally well today, they were unlucky they missed a couple of shots at goal otherwise they could have won the game.
"But credit our players, they soaked up a lot of pressure and when we had a chance we went down there and got three points to put us eight points in front."
Gatland admitted he hadn't expect Italy to be as expansive as they were and said the Azzurri had made them sweat more than Scotland in their previous game.
"I was surprised, I expected a lot more of a set-piece game but they attacked and played a lot of rugby," he said.
"Today's was a lot tougher (than Scotland). Italy are a very big, physical side. Perhaps because of the criticism of Italy in their first two games, playing set-pieces, scrums, line-outs, they played a lot more ball in hand."
Source: AFP European Edition
