The Welsh have not enjoyed a win on the road in the Six Nations since they beat Italy 33-23 in April 2001 - and have since lost seven successive away matches.

With three championship trips in succession this season  Rome, Paris and Edinburgh  they are doubly determined to build on last weekends England win.

Wales have an added incentive to beat the Italians on Saturday, having lost in Rome in humiliating circumstances two years ago.

They also know if they can beat the Azzurri it will be their first back-to-back victories at the start of a championship since they won the title in 1994.

We played all the autumn internationals at home, and obviously our first game of the championship was at the Millennium Stadium, noted Wales captain Gareth Thomas, who leads an unchanged side from the one that beat England 11-9 last Saturday.

Its pretty easy to get up for games when they are played in front of 74,000 screaming fans, so the challenge on Saturday is to go out to Rome and play as well as we do in Cardiff.

Weve never had a structure like this before in the championship, where weve played three on the bounce away from home.

Its a massive challenge for us now. We have proven what we can do in Cardiff, and the next step for us now is proving what we can do on the road - because there is nothing more difficult than going to places like Rome, Paris and Murrayfield.

They are really intimidating places, which is the exact flip side of what weve been used to in Cardiff.

The key, according to Thomas, will be to stick together and keep concentrating.

Weve got to prove we can go away even tighter as a team, even mentally stronger, and produce the kind of performances that weve produced at home, he said.

We went out there two years ago and lost. We know how tough it is in Rome and how good the Italians are in front of their own fans.