Monday 5 June 2017 18:34, UK
Warren Gatland has demanded his British & Irish Lions players believe in their qualities and express themselves amid ongoing comments of his coaching style.
New Zealand coach Steve Hansen has said he does not expect Gatland to stray from the punishing physical approach that has become synonymous during his coaching career.
Gatland has named an entirely new starting XV to take on the Blues at Eden Park on Wednesday, live on Sky Sports, and the Lions' head coach has expressed his desire for the tourists to build a varied attacking strategy.
"I think in a way there's an opportunity for people to want to be critical," said Gatland, who is leading the Lions in a second successive tour.
"We experienced that four years ago (by winning the series in Australia) where people decided to be critical."
Gatland added: "So we didn't play so well against the Barbarians on Saturday, and it gives us an opportunity to go out against the Blues and go and be positive. The message to the players is that we want to play positive rugby, we want to be able to move the ball and shift and create chances.
"And to match the All Blacks you've got to display a bit of X-factor and that X-factor means an offload, or doing something a little outside the box, and the players are being encouraged to do that.
"That's what we're going to need to do to be able to beat them, and express themselves, back their skill, back their ability. And we don't want to be proscribed, and we don't want to play by numbers.
"These players are being encouraged to demonstrate their level of skill, and to go out there and to do that. So hopefully we can show that on Wednesday and the players can do that and perform to what they are being encouraged by the coaches to do."
Ken Owens will captain the Lions against the Blues in the second clash of their 10-match tour, with the Wales hooker having battled back from an ankle problem that had threatened his place on the tour.
All Blacks boss Hansen told The Mail on Sunday of Gatland's style that "every team he's coached has played the same way so I don't see why he would change now", ahead of the highly anticipated three-Test Lions series.
Gatland expressed regret with the continued suggestions he favours a route-one style that Brian Smith, the former director of rugby at London Irish, dubbed "Warrenball" and was steadfast in defence of his adopted style: "When did that way start?" he said. "You don't know the answer to that do you?
"I kind of look and say: 'Did that start when we were successful at Wasps, or was that when I was coaching Waikato to the Air New Zealand Cup, or when did a certain style change?'
"If you can tell me the answer to that, when that time frame was appropriate, I can potentially give you an answer. Look, a few years ago, Brian Smith coined a phrase 'Warrenball', I don't know whether that was because he was jealous of how much success we had, I don't know.
"But we had a group of players who came through Wales at the time who ended up being big, physical players. And so the modern game of rugby is about getting across the gainline and trying to get front-foot ball and playing to space if that's possible."
