Learning curve is over - Edwards

Wales defence coach Shaun Edwards says victory over Australia means their learning curve is over.

Edwards told Scrum V that head coach Warren Gatland's pre-match pep talk ahead of the 21-18 win over the Wallabies underlined the message.

"He (Gatland) did say yesterday (Saturday) that the learning curve is over - it's time to win," said Edwards

"It really struck home to the boys then that we're not here to be brave losers, we're here to be winners."

Edwards added: "We always put pressure on ourselves so it was no different.

"But Warren said in his pre-game talk that it's acceptable to say that we're still on a learning curve by losing to South Africa and it's acceptable to say we're still on that learning curve, pushing the All Blacks close because I think anybody with a firm mind would say the score (Wales 9-29 New Zealand) certainly didn't represent the game."

Edwards was largely satisfied with the narrow win over the Wallabies that gave Wales the only European win against a Tri-Nations team.

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"Wales are on an upward curve - the only problem is that the three teams they are trying to catch - NZ, SA and Oz are also on an upward curve"
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But he also lamented Wales' inability to take the chances created by what he felt was the best attacking rugby they have played since Gatland took over a year ago.

"Obviously there's great satisfaction that we got the result against a southern hemisphere (Tri-Nations) team, the only northern hemisphere team to win during all of the series," said Edwards.

"There's a little bit of frustration that we probably didn't win with more points, particularly in the first-half I thought of the offensive rugby we played was out of the top drawer and probably as good as we've ever played.

"I thought we defended very well throughout the game, probably except for the fact we switched off for the last try. I think we thought the job was done by that time.

"All-in-all we're pretty satisfied, but still got that burning hunger, that desire to get even better.

"We just didn't have much possession in the second-half and Stephen (Jones), 10 times out of 11 he would have made those kicks.

"Fortunately he made the one that really mattered, which put us beyond one scoring try by them near the end, but all-in-all we've got to be satisfied to have beaten Australia, a team who have beaten all the other northern hemisphere teams."