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Coach Warren Gatland hopes that Wales's 21-18 victory over Australia at the Millennium Stadium will be a springboard for greater success.

Fly-half Stephen Jones booted 11 points to add to first half tries from World Player of the Year Shane Williams and Lee Byrne as Wales became the only northern hemisphere team to beat a Tri-Nations side this year.

Gatland said: "I'm really proud of our performance. We played a lot of really good rugby and thoroughly deserved to win.

"Hopefully we can mature over the next couple of seasons into a really good side.

"Someone had to carry the flag for the northern hemisphere but the result was the most important thing for us.

"Stephen Jones was excellent and controlled the game well for us. We have shown glimpses of what we are capable of but we can still improve.

"We dominated throughout but the climax was killing the coaches in the box. We did not help ourselves as a team and should have been further ahead after a good first half but we kept up the momentum and were good enough to grind it out."

Wales had won just once in Australia's previous seven visits and had lost narrowly to world champions South Africa and New Zealand in earlier Tests in the November series.

"It's been a long time coming," Byrne said.

"We've been unlucky the last few games. We've worked hard in the last few weeks. We're that close to beating the top teams, and hopefully we can push on now."

Williams (pictured) said his try was a mere bonus to their bigger aim of a win.

"I was looking for a try today, but more importantly we were looking for a win," said Williams.

"I couldn't have asked for more really, but it was a massive team effort. I was glad to be part of it."

Australia were chasing their first European clean sweep since 1996 following wins over England, France and Italy this month.

Disappointed Australia coach Robbie Deans said: "It's never enjoyable to come second in a test match...There was obviously not much in it.

"It was a good performance by them. "They played good rugby, rugby with ambition, and defensively, they really pushed the boundaries."

AFP / Reuters