Wales flanker Dan Lydiate expects busy night against Fiji

Dan Lydiate is hoping his famed chop tackle will help cut down Fiji at the Millennium Stadium on Thursday night.

The blindside flanker is one of Wales' foremost defenders, his relentless tackle-count proving to be a major feature of his game.

Lydiate will line up for the 50th time in Wales colours against Fiji - his  back-row colleague Taulupe Faletau also reaches the half-century landmark - and he remains an integral part of head coach Warren Gatland's team structure.

The chop tackle was born at the World Cup in New Zealand four years ago, named simply because of a need to tackle players and get them to ground as quickly as possible.

"It came about while working with (Wales defence coach) Shaun Edwards in the pool of death we had last time, with South Africa, Fiji and Samoa all being physical teams," Lydiate said.

"It was trying to get players to the deck as soon as we could, and so that other players we had in the team like Gethin Jenkins and Sam Warburton could get over the ball.

"It developed from there and is something that has been highly effective for us. There are different types of tackles, and you are not always going to get it right.

"We vary our tackling, so in the last couple of years we started choking a few teams in the tackle and got success out of that. I pride myself on my defence and when I do it right it is highly effective."

It requires a huge amount of bravery to implement the chop tackle at maximum effect, and Lydiate added: "I find that it hurts me less when I do it properly. With the law of averages you are going to get some wrong.

"It's like when I tried to chop against Uruguay. I chopped the one way, and (Wales lock) Dom Day came to finish him (Uruguay player) off and it clicked my neck, so it is going to happen.

"But when I get it right it doesn't hurt at all, other than if I went high and had an elbow to the face or something which is going to hurt me a lot more. It has worked for the last couple of years, but I don't just work on that in training."

Lydiate expects a busy night in Cardiff, with Fiji presenting some unusual challenges.

"Play against any South Sea Islands team, and they are that much harder to defend against because they vary from one game to the next," he said.

"There is no set structure, but if you kick loosely to them and they get a head of steam and get over the gain-line, their off-loading game comes into play and it is a hard day at the office then.

"We have to stop that at source and stick to our structure and force our game-plan on them."