British and Irish Lions winger Alex Cuthbert has his eyes firmly set on a third successive Six Nations crown with Wales to add to his growing list of silverware.
The Welsh flyer ended the summer as part of the triumphant Lions squad to return from a 2-1 series victory over Australia, and firmly believes the Welsh contingent can secure another trophy this spring.
Wales begin their defence of the Six Nations on February 1 at the Millennium Stadium, where they welcome Italy.
Were the men in red to claim a third title in a row it would be an unprecedented achievement, with no side having achieved a trio of successive tournament victories.
“We are the reigning champions and everyone will want to stop us winning it again. Every game will be like a World Cup final,” said Cuthbert, who scored two tries as Wales beat England in last year’s Six Nations decider.
“We’ve got to go into it with that mentality because every team will want to beat us.
“They’ll want to knock us off our stride because, as we’ve shown in recent years, if we get into our stride we’re a hard team to beat.
“But we want to be the best team in the northern hemisphere and we relish the fact that we’re the team to beat.”
And Cuthbert isn't take a victory over Italy as a foregone conclusion.
“We’re concentrating on putting down a marker against Italy and building from there,” he said.
“That won’t be easy. They’re improving and they showed last year that they are very stubborn and hard to break down. They’re a tough side.”
