Extended highlights - England 30-17 Wales

England fly-half Jonny Wilkinson believes the 30-17 opening-day win over Wales can provide a springboard for a successful RBS Six Nations campaign.

Two tries from flanker James Haskell helped England record their first Championship win over Wales since 2006.

"Strange to say, but the progress is probably just in the result," said Wilkinson, who landed six out of six kicks at goal in a 15-point haul.

"It's a big, big step forward for us and that's what we need to build on."

After scoring just one try in three autumn internationals, England carved out a 20-3 lead with tries from Haskell and Danny Care at Twickenham.

But Wales responded impressively to reduce the deficit to 20-17, echoing their comeback in the same fixture two years ago.

It was great to go out there with the freedom to play what we see England scrum-half Danny Care

This time, though, England emerged victorious when Delon Armitage intercepted a Stephen Jones pass and Toby Flood and Mathew Tait combined to send Haskell over for the clinching score.

"Just getting on the right side of the scoreline and maybe not succumbing to that big swing and momentum that appeared in the second half, and just managing to push through - that's the big step forward for us," Wilkinson added.

"That's something we need to maintain. We need to work hard to try and build on top of that and make sure we can continue to go in the right direction.

"A lot of effort went into that and I think there were times with the way that Wales came back, where we could have definitely slipped so we had to work very, very hard just to finish the game.

"You get a situation that arises and a couple of events compound things - maybe it's good bits of play - and two years ago it really cost us.

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"Had we started to think 'what's going on?', 'is this the way we are, England?, 'can we not finish a game?' - if any of those thoughts had come in, Wales would have pushed through.

"They're a very good quality side and that's what they do, but we remained steadfast and managed to maybe just grab the last five minutes."

Care, who scored the second try, revealed words of encouragement from Wilkinson's former half-back partner, the World Cup-winning scrum-half Matt Dawson, helped inspire his own performance.

The 23-year-old scrum-half, who was recalled to the team after missing the autumn Tests, scored England's second try and was a constant thorn in the side of Wales' defence.

"Matt is great to have as a mentor figure," said the 23-year-old. "He texted me before the game and said 'Just do your stuff and do what you always do'.

"It was great to go out there with the freedom to play what we see.

This is a step in the right direction. We don't want to get ahead of ourselves England flanker James Haskell

"We were guilty of playing a bit in the wrong areas, and Wales punished us, but we can learn from that now."

England travel to Rome for Sunday's match against serial Wooden Spoon winners Italy knowing another positive result would set them up nicely for a home game against defending champions Ireland on 27 March.

But Care insisted England would not get ahead of themselves.

"It was great to start with this win," he added. "But as soon as we got in the changing room, Martin Johnson reminded us there are four big games to come."

Double try-scorer Haskell added: "We've always stuck together and believed that we had the potential to do it and at times we showed what we can do.

"This is a step in the right direction. We don't want to get ahead of ourselves. It's a very small step, but it's a positive step."

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