By Tom Fordyce BBC Sport in Cardiff

Williams claimed his 86th cap was one of his hardest earned

Martyn Williams admitted he was a relieved man to come away with a win after what he described as one of the hardest matches of his life.

The Wales flanker, a veteran of 86 caps, endured a gruelling back-row battle in the 23-15 win over England.

"There was all this talk that we would knock them from pillar to post and win by this or that many points, but it was a really tough Test match," he said.

"It was one of the toughest games I've played for a long, long time."

England came back from 9-0 down after 15 minutes at the Millennium Stadium, and then from 20-8 early in the second half, to be within a converted try of taking the lead with 10 minutes left on the clock.

"We let them back into the game a couple of times when we should have seen them off," Williams added.

"We were disappointed with the way we defended in places, because that led to two soft tries, and we need to work on that.

"This was a game where we had everything to lose and nothing to gain - we would have taken a win by one point. They made it tough for us and we had to grind it out."

Williams paid tribute to his team-mates' composure in the final stages of the game, when Wales soaked up considerable opposition possession and pressure to hold on for their third successive Six Nations win over England.

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"There's a lot of experience out there now," he said. "The conditioning has gone up a level - we know we can go for 80 minutes - and key players stepped up at key times and did their jobs.

"England have a big pack and were very very physical, and we handled that well. Our mentality was excellent too - we came into this game as overwhelming favourites, but we dealt with that too.

"But there was no magic formula today, just hard work, and we ground out the result."

Centre Jamie Roberts, who faces a scan on his injured left shoulder, was delighted that his side had come through such a fierce physical contest with their Grand Slam hopes intact.

"The boys are battered, but we have to be pleased that we beat England," he said.

"That's two wins from two, and the boys are chuffed."

Wales now have less than a fortnight to prepare for their next match in Paris, with Roberts wary of the threat the home side will pose in the Stade de France.

"France have some very physical players, and they like to chuck the ball about a bit too, so we're going to have to be on our game," he warned.

"I watched the way Scotland played against them, and in the first half Scotland played some great rugby - quick tempo ball, getting across the gain-line - and they made in-roads into France.

"We'll have to defend well and watch them out wide. We'll do our analysis over the next few days and will have to be at our best."

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