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Wales chase slice of history

Wales chase slice of history

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The weight of history may be against them, but Dan Biggar is confident Wales can overturn insurmountable odds against world champions New Zealand this afternoon at the Millennium Stadium.

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A packed out stadium will be willing their Welsh heroes on to victory but the odds are heavily stacked in the visitor’s favour.

Wales have managed to beat the All Blacks on only three occasions in 29 attempts. And you would have to have a long memory to recall the last time the All Blacks were beaten in Cardiff – 1953 in fact.

Despite this, Wales are going into the match in bullish mood with returning fly half Dan Biggar among those who are unwavering in their self-belief.

“It’s been a long time not to beat the All Blacks and we have every­thing in ourselves to do it. It would be probably the best moment in any of our careers to pull off a win against maybe the best rugby side ever to play the game.

“You look at their record since the World Cup. For us to win it would be the best day in our rugby careers. It is a huge challenge and one we are looking forward to.”

Wales have lost 25 matches on the bounce against the All Blacks but even that doesn’t faze Wales as Warren Gatland’s men aim to spoil Richie McCaw’s party when he leads his side out for the 100th time as captain.

“They have to be one of the best All Blacks sides ever. They continue to put winning sequences together,” said Gatland.

“They have that belief they are good enough to win in any situation and handle the threat of the opposition. That’s what makes them the best team in the world.

“There’s a lot of pressure on their players to perform and they know the expectation of the nation is on them, but there’s always someone knocking on their door.

“That’s always been the case and it drives the players on to succeed because of the history and the expectation of other players. It will be a pretty tough side, but we were happy with the way we played against Australia.
“We were disappointed with the opportunities we didn’t take against Fiji, but it’s a great chance for us to build on that.

“If you can’t get up for playing the best team in the world then you shouldn’t be out there. The players are incredibly excited about it.”

Gatland’s counterpart, and former Wales coach, Steve Hansen, added: “We expect Wales to come out and chuck everything at us but we know we are a good side and if we prepare well, we have a decent chance of getting the job done. If we don’t, that’s sport.

“They should be higher than they’re ranked, they play like they’re higher on the big days. They finished fourth at the World Cup and all they’ve done since then is improve their team.

“Wales played pretty well against Australia. They definitely have their eye on this game and you can tell that by the way they played against Fiji.

“We are going to have to prepare really well and make sure we have plenty of energy and are excited.
“We need to make sure we do the job right or otherwise it is going to be a long day.”

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