WALES captain Colin Charvis admits to being apprehensive about facing the All Blacks tomorrow.

He reaches a personal milestone when he wins his 50th cap, but is well aware of the size of the latest challenge.

Charvis dismisses the comparative inexperience of the New Zealand team with five new caps and says Wales will play with the necessary pride despite confessing to a certain nervousness.

"The pride is there, but the nervousness does come in because New Zealand are one of the strongest teams in the world," said Charvis.

"There is no such thing as a weak New Zealand team. I'm apprehensive because I can see how strong they are.

"Though they were not victorious against England they ran one of the top teams in the world close and then drew in France which was huge.

"Their momentum will have increased, but you don't look at the New Zealand team whether they've got 15 new caps or 15 players with 50 caps each.

"We will look at it as a game to see how well we can do. It's a massive challenge, not an opportunity to catch them with their pants down and if we have a bit of luck we can win it."

Charvis buys into the Steve Hansen philosophy of having a training camp despite the closeness of where the players live to to the Vale of Glamorgan headquarters. That contributed to Scott Quinnell's decision last week to quit international rugby for family reasons.

But Charvis said: "When you prepare for an international you've got to buy into what the coach wants.

"There is no doubt that travelling for an hour a day every day was not the best way for me to prepare. Having a month together now is similar to what we do on tour. If this is what it takes that's the way it is and it's what I'm prepared to do."

Charvis even revealed he has had to put his German shepherd dog into kennels because of the training camp regime.

But he will stoke up the fires when it comes to preparing the troops for battle tomorrow. "Putting on the jersey is a proud and emotional moment," he said. "Playing against New Zealand is a huge challenge, bigger than the last three games.

"The challenge is a lot harder this time, but we want to do the best we can for Wales. "There is still a mystique in place with the All Blacks, it will be about how the players react to that and raise their game. It's 15 against 15."

* Newport have four players and Ebbw Vale two in the Wales under-21 squad for the game against New Zealand under 21s on the Cardiff club ground next Friday night (7pm). Centre Scott Williams, outside half Michael Hook, hooker T Rhys Thomas and prop Rhys Thomas have been included from Newport while Ebbw Vale front row pair Keiran Crawford and Kristian Gay are also included. But Newport lock Luke Charteris has been ruled out with a knee injury.

* Gareth Edwards was last night voted the greatest player in Welsh rugby history by the former players association.

* The Welsh Women's Rugby Association have signed three sponsorship deals worth over £100,000 making it the biggest in their history.