Gatland praises strength of New Zealand rugby

WARREN Gatland has praised the strength of New Zealand’s Super Rugby teams ahead of the British and Irish Lions tour this summer.

The Lions will face five New Zealand Super Rugby sides on tour — the Blues, Crusaders, Highlanders, Chiefs and Hurricanes — in addition to a threeTest series against the world champion All Blacks.

And Lions head coach Gatland is under no illusions about the task ahead.

“They are obviously playing very well, there is some outstanding rugby being played by the New Zealand teams in the way that they are dominating the competition,” he said.

“We know how difficult they will be as opposition.

“A lot of those teams are going through transition in terms of the way they are defending.

“Teams are coming up particularly hard off the line, so we are just watching that pretty closely in terms of that transition at the moment.

“The way New Zealand sides have traditionally defended, there’s a bit of a change in the way that they are doing that, but there is no doubt that they are playing some outstanding rugby and they are going to be tough prospects for us leading into the Test matches.”

Gatland, meanwhile, does not believe the loss from his squad of injured England and Saracens No 8 Billy Vunipola, who would potentially have been among the Lions’ star players on tour, will necessarily encourage the All Blacks.

“I don’t think it will make too much difference to them,” he added. “We are going to lose some players along the way, and they are in the same boat as well.

“They’ve got a few big games to play over the next few weekends before the Test series starts.”