TACKLE Richie McCaw — that is the message the Welsh team will have ringing in their ears from coach Warren Gatland when they run out to face the All Blacks at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday.

McCaw is not just the New Zealand captain, he is their inspiration and guiding light, the epitome of a captain who leads from the front. As such Gatland singled him out for special attention when he announced the side yesterday.

“The breakdown is not just a battle at the moment, it’s a war and a key area for both sides,” he warned. “If we’re going to compete with the All Blacks at the breakdown it’s about attrition and acceleration into the contact area. We have to match them and put our bodies on the line.

“We’re facing one of the best players in the world in Richie McCaw. The tag of cheating has often been levied at him, but the referee has to make his own mind up.

“The only way we can combat him is to be as physical as we can with him and make him feel he’s been in a game.”

Gatland says there has been no talk of repeating the stand-off which accompanied the haka when the two sides met last year and he also explained why he thought the All Blacks had lost some of their aura.

“Last year facing the haka down was a massive sign of the respect we have for them, we knew we were at home and we decided we would face it down with a two-minute stand-off,” he admitted.

“There was no plan to get into theatricals, it was just how would we respond to the haka. We’ll have to wait and see what happens this year, but we haven’t spoken about it.

“The All Blacks have lost a bit of their aura because that’s what happens when you lose a few games.

“When I was lucky enough to be involved the All Blacks won 50-odd matches and there was no chance of losing. That creates an aura, but if you lose you become a bit fallible.

“They haven’t won the World Cup since 1987 and they are not rated the number one in the world, but more often than not they are the best in the world.

“The challenge for me is to coach the Welsh players that they can believe. We want to play the best in the world, we play the All Blacks four times in the next two years and South Africa and Australia – we are not running away.

“The Lions performed well in the summer and we hope they can come back with confidence. Part of my job is to create that belief, if you don’t believe you’ve got no chance, but we’re ambitious and want to be able to compete with the best.”