Scott Bemand was delighted his team were able to take the "next step" as Ireland recorded a first Six Nations win under their new coach.
Bemand took over last season and led the side to the WXV3 title but suffered opening defeats to France and Italy at the start of his first Six Nations campaign.
However at Musgrave Park, a clinical Ireland ran in five tries against Wales to earn a 36-5 win.
"I'm delighted for the girls, to be honest," Bemand said. "I keep talking about how hard everyone trains and I keep talking about identity.
"We know we were under a kind of process so it's finally nice to just get a win. We can’t get too carried away with it, it’s the next step.
"It's great for the girls to able to put a performance on, a winning performance and give the Irish crowd something to get behind.
"We’ve always got a performance in us. We knew that the Welsh have got some strengths.
"It was a match-defining moment about two and a half minutes in when they get their first maul and the forwards keep them out.
"It’s funny what momentum and confidence can do to a group.
"We knew that the maul was something we’d have to deal with and I’m so pleased for the girls that they’ve been able to prove to themselves that they can do it.
"We’ve seen it coming, we know it’s coming but look it's only a game isn’t it and there’s two more to go so we’ll dust ourselves off pretty quick."
After blowing multiple opportunities to get that elusive win over Italy two weeks ago, Bemand was happy with the team's decision-making and ability to take their chances.
"You would have seen the Italy game where we created opportunities but weren't quite clinical enough under pressure and people were asking us plenty about that," he said.
"We've just continue to work on things, skillsets need to work under more pressure, opportunities open and close quicker so you need to be more on it, anticipate more, choose which option you are going to use.
"I think we've worked on it, we've probably left a few points out there if we're being really honest. We'll go away and look at that and try to get better again."
Next up for Ireland comes a Twickenham trip with perennial winners England awaiting.
The Red Roses beat Scotland 46-0 in Edinburgh earlier on Saturday.
"It's going to be a step up in test," admitted Bemand (above), who spent seven years as assistant with England before taking charge of Ireland last year.
"They've got a good pack so we're going to have to keep working hard at defending mauls and scoring mauls of our own.
"We know they've got some good ball-carriers so how we tidy up in defence and not let them get momentum and how we compete in the breakdown, they've got some attacking prowess out wide, which we are going to have to manage.
"We think we can put ourselves in the right position to cause a few problems ourselves."
Meanwhile, Bemand said he was hopeful that prop Linda Djougang will be fit to travel. She came off with what looked like a shoulder injury in the second half.
"She's being assessed by medics now," he added. "We'll know a bit more in 24 hours but we're hoping she'll be all right.
"She was pleased with the win, disappointed to come off and bit sore."
