Warren Gatland is under no illusions as to the size of the task facing his side as Wales attempt to end 57 years of hurt at the hands of the All Blacks in Saturday’s first Test in Dunedin.
The last time Wales beat the men in black was way back in 1953. Added to that, Wales’s head coach is fully aware that his adopted country has never beaten New Zealand on home soil and after last weekend’s convincing trouncing of Ireland, the All Blacks will begin the Carisbrook swansong as firm favourites.
“We’re not underestimating the task, the history of this being the last game on Carisbrook and the tradition that the All Blacks are very hard to beat here,” he said.
“We’ve got to come with the attitude we’re not just here to make up the numbers but we’re very well aware of the task ahead.”
Wales have made three changes to the side which lost to South Africa, centre Andrew Bishop replacing the injured James Hook, second row Alun Wyn Jones coming in for Deiniol Jones and flanker Gavin Thomas ending his three year exile as a replacement for Sam Warburton.
“I thought at times, with Ireland scoring 28 points, there’s opportunities. One of the things about the All Blacks in recent seasons is their defence has been pretty hard to crack, and they would have been disappointed to concede four tries,” he added.
“But once the sending-off occurred it was always going to be a 30-plus pointer, so for them and for us a bit it’s been quite hard to gauge where they’re actually at.
“But some of the rugby they played, the offloading and counter-attacking, was as good as I’ve seen from an All Blacks team for a long time.”
When asked if Wales could beat the All Blacks, he replied: “That’s always the question, getting that monkey off your back and getting that confidence and self-belief.
“Winning against South Africa and the All Blacks is at that stage where it will give us that self-belief and confidence, for New Zealand it’s winning the World Cup, the same thing isn’t it?”
Emotions will be running high in Dunedin as Carisbrook holds its last international clash before making way for a new indoor complex which will be ready for next year’s World Cup.
When asked if the last match will add pressure onto his side, he beamed: “I don’t know what they’re talking about, but the game’s professional now, and there are probably a lot of youngsters who don’t care about what happened 50 or 100 years ago. They just want to put the jersey on and play.
“So I don’t think there’s any added pressure on, though there’s always that expectation.”
