The 30-year-old started every one of Wales’ Grand Slam-winning matches last year and didn’t miss a game this time around as they ended England’s hopes of achieving the feat.

Wales did so by beating England 30-3 at the Millennium Stadium to defend their RBS 6 Nations crown having recovered from defeat to Ireland first time out to beat France, Italy and Scotland.

Phillips feels the nature of the win over England was better than any of the matches they played on the way to the Grand Slam last year, their third since Italy were welcomed into the Championship.

And now the Wales scrum-half wants to be inflicting defeat on Australia, South Africa and New Zealand having not beaten any of the three since November 2008.

“The title was one to savour because of the way we turned it around,” said Phillips. “Was Saturday better than the Grand Slam games? I think it probably was because so many things just could not have gone any better.

“But rugby is a cut-throat industry. Everyone loves us now, but the players know the score. We know that if we don’t carry this on, move on to bigger and better things, the critics will come for us.

“I was really happy with my game throughout the Six Nations, I thought the team went on to perform brilliantly and it was probably the best time I have ever had with the team.

“But you don’t just stop there. We have not been that far away from beating Australia in the last 18 months and that is still the next step for us

“To keep the focus and start beating them, New Zealand and South Africa. Those sides have great depth of talent and, yes, they are still a level up from us and we must aspire to them.

“There’s nothing wrong saying that. We can be proud of what we’ve done in the Six Nations, but the fact is we have not taken the next step of beating them.

“If we keep our focus and carry on the way we are going, we can start to do that.”