Flanker Sam Warburton believes minimising the impact of All Blacks skipper Richie McCaw will put Wales on the road to success against the Tri-Nations champions on Saturday.
Wales will be looking to deny New Zealand the honour of an autumn grand slam at the Millennium Stadium and stopping McCaw is the key according to Warburton.
“You hear a lot of people say if you stop McCaw you can stop New Zealand so that could be the case on Saturday,” said the Cardiff Blues openside.
“If the team can stop him playing to his best it will take us one step closer to beating the All Blacks.
“When I was younger I’d always watch players like Martyn (Williams), George Smith and McCaw and they’re players I’ve looked up to.
“He is one of the world’s great players without He’s very experienced and knows what to do and knows how to play the referee and that’s the great skill he has.”
Warburton, who hasn’t featured since picking up a calf injury in defeat to Australia three weeks ago wants Wales to play with confidence and show what they are capable of in the final game of the Invesco Perpetual International series.
“Obviously everyone was gutted after last weekend and there’s no other way of describing how the players were feeling,” added Warburton.
“People are making it look all doom and gloom but this time last week we were pretty pleased at nearly beating South Africa so we’ve got to take confidence and the positives from that game and take it into New Zealand.
“We’ve got to pick ourselves up, continue to train well this week and hopefully put in a good performance on Saturday.
“The last couple of times we’ve played New Zealand we’ve started really well so if we can start well this time and just hold on to that then it’s anyone’s game.
“We’ve found that there’s been a 10 or 15 minute spell in the second half where maybe concentration has slipped.
“We’ve said we really need to focus on that 50-60 minute mark and make sure we don’t give away a couple of silly tries which can turn the game.
“If we take the lead we’ve got to be more sensible with our game plan.”
