Ireland captain Brian O'Driscoll has warned Wales they will need to slow down New Zealand's quick ruck ball if they are to stand a chance of winning their opening Test against the All Blacks in Dunedin on Saturday.
The Irish struggled to do that in New Plymouth last weekend and paid a heavy price in the 66-28 thrashing at Yarrow Stadium.
Although the visitors were hampered by the early sending-off of Jamie Heaslip and the sin-binning of Ronan O'Gara, it took them a while to adjust to the speed of the game played under the new law interpretations as New Zealand recycled the ball quickly and constantly threatened the Irish line.
Ireland staged something of a second-half fight back, albeit when All Blacks coach Graham Henry had emptied his bench and had six new caps on the field, but it was far too little too late.
‘Wales have to stop the speed of ruck ball. That was the one thing we struggled with,’ the Irish skipper said.
‘They are able to generate incredibly quick ruck ball and we couldn't set our defensive line.
‘Their ability to offload and support play was a really, really top class. For the first Test of the season they did pretty well. They look very potent at the moment.’
O'Driscoll, though, did not discount Wales' chances in Dunedin and Hamilton all together, particularly given the recent performance against South Africa.
‘The Welsh boys are the sort of side that are very capable of upsetting any side,’ he added.
‘If they start well and get into a good mindset I'm sure they could do extremely well.’
Wales captain Ryan Jones and his team-mates arrived in Wellington on Sunday afternoon to continue their preparations for the Carisbrook showdown.
They Welsh have opted to get an early look at the facilities they will be using during next year's Rugby World Cup and do not head to Dunedin until Thursday when they will name their team to take on Henry's outfit.
Henry is due to announce his team on Tuesday and there are likely to be some changes with Mils Muliaina and Richard Kahui, who have both been on the injury list, coming through club rugby and a chance to feature in Dunedin.
Jones is back on New Zealand soil for the first time since the 2005 British & Irish Lions tour and says he has fond memories of his time in the country.
The Ospreys number eight was one of the few players to shine in that trip which ultimately ended with a three-nil Test series loss.
‘I really enjoyed the rugby we played on the tour, regardless of the ultimate result,’ he said.
‘This is a tough old place to come and play rugby - it's the toughest mountain you can climb in the game, probably the toughest place in the world to tour. But we hope we can produce something historic.’
The close-fought 34-31 loss to the Springboks at the Millennium Stadium has Jones believing Wales can turn around their poor run of results against the world number-one team coached by two former Wales bosses in Henry and his All Blacks assistant Steve Hansen.
‘We were hugely disappointed to miss out on wining the South Africa game - it was tough to take. But we know that the errors we made were things in our control and we can do something about them,’ said Jones.
‘There were a lot of positives on display in that game. We scored three tries and pushed the world champions right to the edge. We have a few things to work on but we have time to do that before we play the All Blacks.
‘We know that if we can win one of these next two Tests then that could be the tipping point that changes the team psyche and means we start winning the close ones instead of losing them like we have been doing.
‘There's no bigger game than New Zealand in their own back yard, but we are here to take them on and we are all really looking forward to it.’
