Italy fly-half Diego Dominguez was delighted with his side's second-ever Six Nations victory after the 30-22 defeat of Wales in Rome.

Dominguez scored 15 points - including two sweetly-struck drop goals - to see the Azzurri home.

And the influential number 10 knew the importance of the win for the Italians.

"This means a lot for Italian rugby and I think we deserved it," said Dominguez.

"We have been looking for this victory for two years."

"To get a win you need to show a lot of courage. We deserved this victory and we believed we could win before the match."

Italy's New Zealand-born number eight Matthew Phillips also drew attention to the implications for the future of the sport in his adopted country.

"We needed this victory - it was vital for Italian rugby," said Phillips.

"If we were going to win a game this season we had to win this one.

"They dropped the ball basically."

"We probably shut up shop a bit early, maybe we could have put them under a bit more pressure.

"But now we've got this victory hopefully we can get another one."