Caretaker coach Steve Hansen has warned his players not to underestimate Italy when Wales bid for what should be their first Lloyds TSB Six Nations victory of the campaign next week.

The Welsh were backed to see off the Italians by French coach Bernard Laporte after France overcame Hansen's team 37-33 in a thrilling clash at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium on Saturday.

"If Wales put in as much heart and courage as they did against us against Italy then I don't see how Italy can win," said Laporte after his team set up a potential championship decider with England in Paris on Saturday week.

But Hansen does not want Wales to get carried away after their improved showing following the humiliation in Ireland even though they are facing an Italian team that has managed just one win since they joined the test series.

"We have got to just try and keep on improving," said Hansen. "France are one of the top sides and we came so close to getting a good result.

"But when we come to Italy we have got to respect them. There is no guarantee that even if we play well we will beat them."

Hansen was backed up by full-back Kevin Morgan, who knows it is vital Wales see off the Italians as their following game will be a visit to Twickenham to face a rampant England.

"The Italy game is a must-win situation and we have to focus on that game now," said Morgan, whose try was the only one of four decisions by Italian video referee Claudio Giacomel which went the way of the Welsh.

"The guys are really disappointed that we got so close to winning against France, but we have got to look at the positives. The performance was much more important than the result.

"We put right a lot of the wrongs of a fortnight ago. We can look back at the middle 40 minutes as the period which cost us the game. We slacked off a bit."

Skipper Scott Quinnell was off the field for 10 of those minutes after being sin-binned for a late tackle on full-back Nicolas Brusque with the French taking advantage by scoring 10 points and adding another penalty as the number eight returned to the fray.

"When you lose a player of Scott's calibre for 10 minutes it is hard on the team but you have just got to get on with it," added Morgan, who believed he had done enough to stop wing Aurelien Rougerie from scoring the try he was awarded by the video referee while Quinnell was on the sidelines.

Forwards Craig Quinnell and Nathan Budgett grabbed Wales's other tries with outside-half Stephen Jones kicking 18 points as the under-fire players regained their pride after the defeat in Dublin which led to the resignation of coach Graham Henry.

But France did just enough to win thanks to a brace of tries from New Zealand centre Tony Marsh, 19 points from the boot of outside half Gerald Merceron and a long-range penalty from centre Damien Traille.