Gatland invokes hoodoo spell

All week Warren Gatland has been busy trying to exorcise the ghouls that have terrorised Wales since they last beat New Zealand 55 years ago. But last night the crafty Kiwi set about turning the ouija board on his own country.

"The last time they were here, they lost," pointed out this former All Black at the Millennium Stadium. "That night they used the same dressing room and didn't have the greatest time in there. And the two coaches [Graham Henry and Steve Hansen] did not always win with Wales here, either. So a few of their own demons could come back to haunt them."

Indeed, they might still be dancing around in the bowels of the ground, perhaps even in that cursed changing room itself which, following their World Cup exit to France last October, the hooker Anton Oliver so memorably described as "having the putrid smell of death" . In fact, it was jolly kind of Gatland to bring it up as Henry and Co may have well forgotten about it...

However, there was more than mere mischief in Gatland's allusion to that quarter-final. For that was the way to beat New Zealand, perhaps the only way. "When they are in front and playing with confidence, there is no-one who can touch them," said Gatland. "But if you put them under pressure and the Test match gets into an arm wrestle... well, that is when you see the cracks."

Therefore it is crucial, says Gatland, "to get off to a good start" and to do that, he concedes, Wales must run out in the conviction that they are man enough to succeed where the last 19 Welsh teams have failed. Which is probably even harder that it sounds. "That's what it's all been about in this build-up," said Gatland. "On day one this week we got the squad together and told them there's one thing that we must first address – 'Do you honestly believe you can beat the All Blacks?'"

Regardless of the resounding "yes" – a rather easy word to shout at a plush hotel on a Monday morning – Gatland is anticipating the answer this evening, although he is clearly unsure of what it will be. That is perfectly understandable as in 1953, when Bleddyn Williams's men won 13-8, not only had Gatland yet to be born, but neither had most of the fathers of his players. In fact, there was some doubt last night whether the grandfather of the 19-year-old wing, Leigh Halfpenny, had even been old enough to watch it. No, it is not simply 22 sickeningly talented professionals they have to surmount, but also an inferiority complex constructed over two generations. Which is, as Shane Williams termed it "a big ask" and probably a tad too big for Gatland's work in progress.

Saying that, Wales were cheered by the fitness of James Hook yesterday, who is now almost certain to take his place on the bench after his knee injury. The fly-half will doubtless come on in the second-half and by then Gatland and Wales will know. If the All Blacks are still within touching distance, then so too will be their slice of Welsh immortality. The prize truly is that large.