WALES flanker Dan Lydiate has warned his team-mates they cannot afford to take Italy lightly in the next round of the Six Nations - despite Warren Gatland's side ending their eight-match winless run at Murrayfield yesterday.

The 24-6 win over Scotland was Wales' first success since their victory over Italy in Cardiff last March, and marked the first time Lydiate had tasted victory in a Test he had started.

It also boosted Welsh hopes of launching a Six Nations title challenge after the disappointment of last weekend's opening reverse against England.

The Azzurri in Rome are Wales' next assignment with Nick Mallett's side reeling from their 59-13 hammering at the hands of England at Twickenham yesterday.

But Newport Gwent Dragons back-rower Lydiate knows Italy represent a much stiffer challenge on home soil, as shown by their performance in last weekend's narrow 13-11 defeat to Ireland.

Wales have previously tasted Six Nations defeat in Rome in 2003 and 2007, and were given a real scare in a narrow 20-15 win two years ago, and Lydiate said: "Italy had a bad result yesterday but they showed against Ireland they are a force to be reckoned with and there are no easy games in the Six Nations.

"We will have to be on our mettle and perform otherwise they could sting us.’’ But 23-year-old Lydiate admitted that the victory has taken some of the pressure off Wales, and that the squad will have a new spring in their step when they return to training this week.

"It was a much better feeling than last week,’’ he continued. "After the game we were really chuffed. The boys were so happy and we are looking forward to going into training this week and the game in two weeks' time.’’ Lydiate was a star performer in Wales' win, with he and fellow back-rowers Sam Warburton and Ryan Jones getting through a mountain of work as the visitors spent most of the final hour defending, having opened up a 16-0 lead through Shane Williams' first try and 11 points from the boot of fly-half James Hook.

The final tackle count saw Wales make 137 to Scotland's 87.

The crucial passage of play came when Wales were reduced to 13 men after having lock Bradley Davies and full-back Lee Byrne sin-binned in quick succession, for the latter it was his third yellow card in 12 months.

Lydiate won a crucial turnover as Scotland laid siege to the Welsh line and the away side survived that period of numerical inferiority having conceded just three points.

And Lydiate revealed that assistant coach Shaun Edwards had been fulsome in his praise of the side after the game.

"We had a plan going into the match and we stuck to it in the first 20 minutes, but one thing led to another with the two yellow cards and we became disjointed,’’ he said.

"All the boys dug in at that point and there will be some high tackle counts when we look back on the game. We said we needed to keep our structure, not panic and not get anyone else sin-binned.

"You can always put your hand in to slow ball down and that's when you can get yellow cards, but we stuck together and the boys did really well.

"Shaun said it was one of the best defensive performances Wales have had and we can take a lot from stopping them crossing our tryline.’’ Although Wales' win was ultimately comfortable they were unquestionably helped by an error-strewn display from Scotland - the hosts made 19 errors in total - and Lydiate says Gatland's men must strive to produce an 80-minute performance, as opposed to playing in fits and starts.

He said: "We played well in patches in the game but did not get the full 80-minute performance we wanted, but it's about the result at the end of the day and we are happy to get the win.’’ Lydiate cut a disgruntled figure when he left the Murrayfield pitch to be replaced after 53 minutes, understandably given the quality of his performance, but he insists that he understands the reasoning behind his withdrawal.

He continued: "You never want to come off, especially when you are winning. You want to play the full 80 but I can understand that maybe we needed some fresh legs when we were defending so much.’’