Head coach Warren Gatland says his team must accept the challenge of avoiding falling to the bottom of the Six Nations for the first time in 21 years.
Wales will face Italy in the Wooden Spoon decider after France won the Six Nations 45-24 at the Principality Stadium.
It was Gatland's fourth loss in the Six Nations.
Wales have not lost all their games in one tournament since 2003.
Buoyed by their impressive win over Scotland, Italy will be looking to repeat their victory over Cardiff two years ago next Saturday to help Wales reach the knockout stages.
Even if Wales beat the Azzurri in Cardiff next weekend, it may not be enough to avoid a bottom-of-the-table finish.
“It's massive, but we have to be excited and accept the challenge,” Gatland said.
“You can't hide from it. I've never done that, you can't shut yourself up in your shell.
“There's going to be a lot of external pressure and expectations, and that's always going to come with international rugby.
“We have to give it our all and work hard to perform at home next week.
“We can't not talk about it. We said in the changing room after the game that we need to do better, especially in important moments.
“We have to be on the front lines in training next week and we know how important it is for us to win next week.”
Gatland praised Italy's win against Scotland and knows they will arrive in Wales full of confidence.
“I thought it was a great performance from Italy,” Gatland said.
“It was good for the tournament, with a lot of teams under pressure and a lot of danger.
“That creates excitement. They're a tenacious, tenacious team that's good at taking chances and keeping the scoreboard moving.”
“Physically, they are in pretty good shape in terms of competing at this level.
“It will be a challenge for us and it will be huge for them too, because they think they can perform well in the Six Nations next week and finish in the best possible position.
“We definitely don’t want to finish last and we want to get a win, so that will be very important for us.”
Joe Roberts, who formed a new central partnership with Rio Dier, Tomos Williams and Owen Watkin, scored a try against France after Wales were without Nick Tompkins and George North.
“I know a lot is said about the centres, but as a duo we worked well,” Gatland said.
“They're going to learn from that some of the line speed on the defensive side.
“We're trying to integrate people without being too radical with the changes, but at the same time we're trying to give people opportunities at this level.”
Gatland explained why he replaced half-backs Sam Costelow and Tomos Williams with Ioan Lloyd and Gareth Davies just before the hour mark when Wales were leading.
“It was just a fresh foot in the door,” Gatland said.
“I thought Gareth Davies might bring a little more to the table defensively.
“We are happy with Ioan coming on and being an attacking threat and getting the ball into his hands.
“I thought Sam Costelow had a good game, we’ve been working on him in terms of some width.
“We want to expand his width and make him more of an offensive and running threat.
“I thought he was much better in that area today. When we held the ball and ran hard and challenged them and took some offloads, that’s when he looked dangerous. I thought so.”
“There were a lot of things in today's game that were reasonably good. We had the advantage, but unfortunately we might have lost a little bit in the last 15 minutes.”
Flanker Tommy Leffell was forced off in the second half with a knee injury, and Gatland said he would be “evaluated in the next day or so”.
