Chris Robshaw welcomed England’s first Triple Crown since 2003 after Wales were swept aside 29-18 at Twickenham.
The Six Nations title remains a target on the final day of the Championship – Ireland and France are also in contention – but Robshaw is still able to savour a clean sweep of home union scalps.
“It’s huge to pick up a significant piece of silverware,” the England captain said.
“We’ve done that before on the back of individual games, but for a collective of more than one game it’s fantastic. As a squad we said our next step is to pick up silverware.
“We’ve done that and more importantly we’ve got ourselves in a good position going into next week.”
It was England’s first victory over Wales under head coach Stuart Lancaster, secured on the back of tries from Danny Care and Luther Burrell and the kicking of Owen Farrell.
They now head to Italy for the climatic day of the tournament locked in a three-way shootout for the title.
Arguably the most satisfying result of Lancaster’s two-year reign as head coach prevented a fourth successive defeat to Wales and landed a psychological blow ahead of their group showdown in the 2015 World Cup.
Adding to the gravity of a match Lancaster could not afford to lose was the need to avenge last season’s Grand Slam-wrecking 30-3 rout in Cardiff.
Against that backdrop Wales were swept aside, answering the question of their head Warren Gatland as to how much they have really matured over the last 12 months.
“We were embarrassed at the Millennium Stadium last year, there’s no hiding that fact,” Robshaw said.
“It was a big defeat. It’s been a long year for a lot of us, so to put in a performance like that was fantastic. We hadn’t beaten Wales until this game so this is brilliant and fantastic.
“The hype had been building for two weeks, so for the players to go out there and deliver when there was so much going on shows a huge amount of maturity and experience in the squad.
“Had we lost to Wales it would have been four losses in a row and that would have left us with bit of a mountain to climb, especially going to the Millennium Stadium next year.”
Standings: Ireland (3-0-1) 6; England (3-0-1) 6; France (3-0-1) 6; Wales (2-0-2) 4; Scotland (1-0-3) 2; Italy (0-0-4) 0.
Saturday’s fixtures: 14.30 Italy vs England; 15.45 Wales vs Scotland; 19.00 France vs Ireland.