Ruddock made his assessment after the 38-8 destruction of Italy in a potentially fraught second championship encounter at the Stadio Flaminio.

Im very pleased with that performance - we played some good rugby. Everybody is working hard and Im happy for the players, he said.

I believe this squad has the potential to be a great team - provided they keep getting results like today and continue to improve.

We try to play a style of rugby that people enjoy and we try to score tries. We have some great talent in this squad and its the players who are driving us at the moment.

Everyone was talking about the strength of the Italian forwards in the build-up to this match, even though we beat England last weekend. But I thought we looked comfortable against them.

We took the initiative with that first try. We saw what Italy did to Ireland and knew they would come at us like that, so we impressed on the players the need to take immediate control.

That was the plan and it worked until they got their try. But we didnt panic and (captain) Gareth Thomas has to take a lot of credit for that - he told the players to stick to the gameplan.

Italy are a great team - I think theyre the most improved side in world rugby. If we hadnt entered the match with the right mindset it would have been much harder. We were very professional and clinical throughout.

Martyn Williams was named man of the match - although his namesake Shane must have pushed him close for the accolade - and Ruddock saluted the Cardiff flankers performance.

Martyn was brilliant, like all the players. He was given his opportunity after Colin Charvis was ruled out - he took it against England and hes taken it again today, he said.

Everyone in this squad knows they have to play well if they want to hang onto the jersey.

Fly-half Stephen Jones left the field in the 64th minute with a shoulder injury but Ruddock revealed he had not suffered any serious damage.