After victories over South Africa and Hong Kong, Phillips’ outfit ended their run of three straight fixtures with a 38-21 defeat to Canada.
The result might not have gone Wales’ way, but their performance still provided their head coach Phillips with plenty of positives.
“We knew Canada was going to be a step up because they are one of the best teams in the world,” he said.
“We picked up momentum over the course of the autumn and we’ll take some of that out of this result too.
“The match with Canada showed how far our programme has come, how much progression women’s rugby has made, and what we’ve done this autumn is a massive step forward.
“I’m really pleased and proud. We are now a team who can compete with the best sides for 65 minutes.
“Considering we couldn’t do that in the past, we’ve made big strides.”
Wales scored tries through Carys Phillips, Sioned Harries and Lisa Neumann and Robyn Wilkins kicked the rest of the points, but it was not enough for victory.
Canada’s efforts came from Sara Svoboda, Gabrielle Senft, a Courtney Holtkamp brace, Cindy Nelles and the superb Elissa Alarie.
“Since I’ve been head coach we’ve done OK in the Six Nations against teams at a similar level to us, but when it’s come to the best sides we’ve been found wanting,” said Phillips.
“Against Canada we weren’t; we played with great effort, but also skill and determination.
“We needed to know we can compete against the top teams, but this is only the start of our journey. We need to build from here now.
“In the end it was small margins. The best teams take their opportunities. We never got close to scoring last time we played Canada, so to score 21 points against them this time shows progress.”
