Wales coach Warren Gatland believes the best approach for his side when the test series against the All Blacks begins on Saturday is to try to stay in the game as long as they can.
Warren Gatland, who took Wales to the quarter finals of the recent World Cup. Photo: Photosport
Wales have not beaten the All Blacks since 1953 and it appears it will be a tough task for them this time in Auckland.
But Gatland said they were not here to simply make up the numbers and knew the All Blacks would be rusty in their first outing of the season at Eden Park.
Gatland said the key was to try and stay in the game as long as they could and then they will see what happens.
"We said to our players 'go and have a look at the Georgia game in the first game of the World Cup' you know there was a lot of mistakes that the All Blacks made and obviously ran rusty as a team in that first game of the World Cup and they got better as the tournament went along," said Warren Gatland.
"So for us it's about concentrating and making sure that we can stay in the game."
Gatland said there were not too many weaknesses if any in the All Black team they will face in the 3-test series.
The All Blacks are without a half a dozen key players who left after the World Cup but Gatland said New Zealand were still teeming with experience.
"They've almost put out the starting pack of the World Cup final forward pack apart from Richie [McCaw], it's a pretty strong back line as well."
"So we're just weighing up what we think the combinations are going to be at the moment and I presume there's some youngsters they would want to try and give some game time to and to blood in. You know we're going to make it as difficult as possible to allow them to do that."
Meanwhile, the All Blacks are expecting a more expansive game plan from the Welsh.
All Blacks hooker Dane Coles said the Welsh forwards were trying to improve their ball skills which was evident in their recent loss to England.
"They played a bit different against the English, their forwards were using the ball a bit more, they're trying to bring a different skill set," said Dane Coles.
"You know they are pretty dominant at scrum time as well, they'll rate their chances up front so it's a good challenge for the group that will be going out against them so yeah little bit of new stuff but still the traditional kind of Welsh sides that base a lot of their attack off the set piece."
Dane Coles said the new All Blacks were learning to develop competitive yet supportive relationships with their team- mates.
