Johnny Sexton revealed he was more nervous than he has ever been before Ireland's big Six Nations victory in Cardiff.
The veteran skipper played his first match since undergoing facial surgery a month ago as Ireland picked up a bonus point 34-10 victory.
It was their first championship win at the Principality Stadium in a decade and puts Ireland on collision course with defending champions France in Dublin in six days time.
"I don’t think I’ve ever been as nervous as I was before a game," admitted Sexton. "For lots of reasons, but the main one was I'd forgotten what it was like to build up.
"I'd had one game on New Year's Day (against Ulster) since South Africa (in November) and I got injured in that.
"I slipped off one or two tackles trying to go a little bit lower so I went back to tackling higher in the second half.
"It can be in the back of your mind, I tested it during the week, did some contact with Simon Easterby. I felt good, was confident and I got a good whack in the first-half and it was OK. I tested it out as well.
"I trained hard, made some mistakes in training but you want to train well and then hopefully you get a few less on Saturday.
"We came a bit unstuck in the third quarter, we just need to look at that and see what we can do better.
"We'll get through it and see how we are next week."
There was some confusion after Sexton suffered a dead leg with ref Dave Kitson getting his wires crossed and the 37-year-old was replaced by Ross Byrne as he went for a precautionary HIA.
"I was just trying to get the physio," said Sexton. "I had a dead leg, wanted to get it strapped up but he said I needed to come off for a HIA.
"I said I just needed to see a physio and get a quad strapped. That was the confusion. I went off, did my HIA. I'm fine."
Andy Farrell was pleased with his side's start - Ireland scored three tries in the opening 21 minutes and led 27-3 before the half hour.
But the visitors' game and discipline unravelled after that and the Ireland boss said his players were "architects of our own downfall" - it wasn't until the 72nd minute that Josh van der Flier scored the fourth try as Wales attacked relentlessly.
However Farrell was satisfied that Ireland maintained their winning form after losing Jamison Gibson-Park and Cian Healy to hamstring issues on the morning of the match.
"It's always been about the group and having no excuses," he said.
"You can look for plenty if you search for them but you trust the squad, back the squad and putting in a performance like that just reiterates those points even more so."
"There are a host of things we could have used as an excuse but our preparation has been top drawer and we got what we deserved.
"It’s a tough place to come and our history says that but the way we galvanised as a group is testament to how we’ve gone about our work.
"Giving us a bonus point win, I'd have snatched your hand off beforehand. Best thing about is there's plenty to do and fix, it's not a bad place to be."
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