CAPTAIN fantastic Sam Warburton has demanded that Wales kick on in World Cup year after ending their southern hemisphere jinx with a hard-fought success against South Africa.

The openside flanker led from the front in Saturday's tense 12-6 victory to become only the second man, after Rob Howley in 1999, to skipper a Wales side to glory against the Springboks.

After enduring a catalogue of heartbreaking defeats to the southern hemisphere's big three, it was a timely victory in the final Test of 2014.

Warburton says turning over top teams needs to be the norm with the World Cup just 10 months away.

"I always thought it was a matter of when, not if, and I never doubted the ability of our team," said the Cardiff Blues back row forward who performed magnificently in the autumn series.

"You only have to be in our changing room before the game and see how motivated everyone is to play these sides.

"It is an amazing career highlight and massive achievement because I have not experienced this in a Welsh jersey before.

"But this has to be the standard now to kick on. We don't want this to be once in a blue moon and celebrate it like we have won the World Cup.

"If we want to be world beaters, which we want to do, and win the World Cup, this has to be the standard we have to set."

Warburton warned that the defeat will fire the Springboks up should their paths cross at next year's tournament but believes the hard-fought success will give Wales a mental boost ahead of their group of death encounters with hosts England, bogey side Australia and hard-hitting Fiji.

"I have always said to win a World Cup you will have to beat one of the big three sides, there's no way around it," he said.

"Going into a World Cup having beaten one of them, psychologically it will be a good thing knowing the next time we take the field we have had a victory.

"But if I was off the back of a loss of that and I was South Africa, the next time I played Wales I would give it an extra effort and they will come back firing."