KEY POINTS:
All has gone swimmingly so far for the All Blacks. Well, the results have at least, while injuries have been kept to the all-too-sudden exit of Andrew Hore after Hong Kong and a niggling back injury - with a judicial hearing narrowly survived - for loosehead prop Tony Woodcock.
Some of the quality of rugby has been mixed, but the ticks have kept appearing in the results column.
Two games left to complete another Grand Slam, starting with a return to the stage of their unhappy World Cup exit in Cardiff. There will be a reunion, of sorts, with Warren Gatland, who is the latest New Zealand coach to ply his international trade in the Welsh principality.
Gatland has his own challenges after his Six Nations champions fell to the Springboks in their opening test this season then spluttered to victory against Canada. He has put his captain Ryan Jones under notice and a few others have been given similar messages as they search for a victory against the All Blacks which has eluded them since 1953.
The coach admits this weekend is the big stage for his side and he expects a strong performance. He is not silly enough to predict victory but he wants Wales to show the progression he felt they were making in last year's Six Nations.
"When I took over after the World Cup, Wales were at a bit of a low ebb. So I have worked hard on gaining respect for the team and myself, in what we do and what we can achieve," he said. "We want to claim that pride in the nation and what we can do, and we achieved that in the Six Nations. But we have to push on.
"We are trying to build, we are ambitious and want to close the gap on the Southern Hemisphere."
Gatland wants Wales to play the Southern Hemisphere sides as much as they can before the next World Cup in New Zealand. He sees it as the only way they could close the gap on those nations.
Early this week, as Gatland settled his charges into their country training retreat at the Vale of Glamorgan, he eyeballed the entire squad during one meeting. He asked them if they felt they could cope with the pressure and whether they believed they had a chance of beating the All Blacks. In previous years he knew the squad had answered in the affirmative, though deep down there were some players who were very uncertain.
There was no sign of that this week as Gatland scoured the room and the players for any diffidence.
"The response was good, it was optimistic. They know they have to build on what we did in the second half against the Springboks. We had a lot of the territory then, we were finishing over the top of the Boks and I think we came out of that test with some real belief."
At one stage Wales trailed 3-20, but finished in better shape than the Boks and, but for some self-inflicted mistakes, could have won. It was, said Gatland, a real change from the days when Wales would have shipped 30 or 40 points in a similar situation.
Wales had to learn to compete for an entire game. If they could replicate some of the Munster ethos in the way they took the All Black dirt-trackers to the wire this week in Limerick, they would make great strides.
"We have to learn to grind out victories. We have to learn to get our noses in front and then have that hard edge to keep accumulating points, taking our chances while denying the All Blacks.
"Because there is no doubt that if the All Blacks start fast and get away on you, they play a brand of rugby which is very hard to contain."
The tourists did not have to be ultra-clinical against Ireland because they were able to exploit the chances they got and quickly put that test out of their hosts' grasp. There were gamebreakers all through the All Blacks and Daniel Carter was a special player with the control he could exert over a match.
"We have to start well and get the All Blacks into an arm-wrestle. If they get on the front foot and get their confidence then they are an exceptionally hard team to pull back. We have to create pressure; it is a matter of whether we can do it," Gatland said.
Gatland is into the early stages of his contract in Wales on a campaign he wants to raise to a peak for 2011 in New Zealand.
He has inherited some issues with the players and clubs squabbling about player releases and while that was frustrating and there were many political elements to the rugby scene in Wales, Gatland was enjoying his tenure.
"My commitment to Wales is unwavering. There have been some things written in the press which would suggest otherwise and there are of course times when you question what you are doing, but I am enjoying what we have got going on here," he said.
