British & Irish Lions assistant coach Warren Gatland is under no illusions about the enormity of the challenge facing the tourists ahead of Saturday’s first Test against The Springboks.
The tourists have won all six of their provincial games on the Tour thus far and claimed a famous 2-1 series win on their last visit to South Africa 12 years ago.
However, they will go into the game as rank outsiders and that is understandable, according to Gatland, given the quality of the opposition.
"They are the best team in the world at the moment. They’re the world champions, they went on an autumn series last year undefeated, they’ve a very settled side, a very experienced side, so, they’ll go into the game with a lot of confidence,” the Wales boss admitted.
”And we’re expecting them to come out and be very physical. They’re very proud of their rugby heritage and tradition and they will have been reminded of what happened in 1997. They won’t want a repeat of that.”
However, Gatland is in no doubt that The Lions can upset the odds at the King’s Park Stadium, believing that the fact that The Springboks’ have not played a Test match since last November will work in the visitors’ favour.
”They are something of an unknown quantity because of that but we can take a lot confidence out of France’s win against The All Blacks last week,” he explained. “Traditionally, it’s usually the first Test that you have a chance to catch the home team a little bit undone.
”I know that they’re saying that they’ve prepared well and that they’re ready for it but we’ve got six games and a lot of training sessions under our belts so we’ve got to go into this game with a lot of confidence and self-belief.
”We’ve got to go out there and impose our game on them as much as possible.
”We feel that our scrum has been dominant in every game we’ve played. We’ve got a line-out that can deliver us some good ball. We’ve got some players in the back-line who can get us across the advantage line. We’ve got a good kicking game. So I think we’ve got a nice mix.”
Gatland knows, though, that The Lions will have stick rigidly to the tactical game plan which Ian McGeechan has laid out for them.
”I think if we get involved in a set-piece battle, a real physical confrontation... well, that’s something they’ll enjoy. So we’ll try to move them about a bit, take the ball through plenty of phases and ask some questions of their tight five. That’s pretty much the plan that we’re going into the game with.”
Gatland is also aware that how referee Bryce Lawrence officiates at the breakdown, an area in which The Lions have struggled horribly to date, will also play a big part in determining the outcome of the game.
”We’re just looking for clarity and consistency from the officials,” the Kiwi admitted. “In each game we have found that there has been a difference in terms of interpretation and we’ve adapted during games because the way the referee has been controlling that particular area.
"I know that during the Super 14, because of the ELVs, there was less respect for the breakdown because the sanction was only a free-kick. Now it’s a full-on penalty which could result in three points.
”So we’re just hoping that the referees are going to be really strong in that area and he’ll give both teams some space to play some positive rugby.”