After biting his tongue for a week, Gatland fired back after the Lions overcame early tour difficulties to look sharp and well-drilled as they comprehensively outplayed the Maori All Blacks 32-10 in Rotorua yesterday.
Hansen has been firing barbs of his own in the lead-up to the Test, accusing Gatland of having only one style of play and claiming inside knowledge of the Lions reinforcements.
Gatland also confirmed that flyhalf Owen Farrell would be "100% fit" for the opener at Eden Park after missing the Maori All Blacks match with a quadriceps strain.
"If you cut me open I probably bleed red, yellow and black; I'm very proud of my roots", Gatland said. "I wouldn't want to put my house on (the result)".
"It's part of the game in New Zealand, all New Zealand teams at the moment are doing it".
"What's most important is you have team-mates coming on board who buy into what the Lions are about and deliver a performance", Haskell said.
The statue has Meads, nicknamed "Pinetree", in running stride with a ball stuck in his right hand.
Man United and Chelsea make offers for top 25-year-old midfielder
Now, the admission of the two counts of fraud in 2012 and 2013 will see him pay an additional fine of nearly 780,000 euros. In Spain, sentences less than two years are normally suspended unless the individual has a prior conviction.
The Welsh second-row is one of two locks on the bench for tomorrow's game and much will depend on how long he spends on the field.
Part of their brilliance in attack that night was the ability of fly-half Beauden Barrett to bring his wide players into the game through the centre partnership of Sonny Bill Williams and Anton Lienert-Brown, the latter of who has the ability to offload nearly at will.
"We've looked at a lot of footage, we know Gats [Lions coach Warren Gatland] pretty well, so we're pretty clear on what they'll bring, and we'll have to really steel up", he said, noting the tourists' set piece was formidable against the Maori.
Wales quartet Cory Hill, Kristian Dacey, Gareth Davies and Tomas Francis have made the short trip from Auckland to link up with the Lions. And I think we're going to be a hell of a side. "Had it been a Test match he would have played", he said. When the ball is that hard to handle in the contact areas - where New Zealand players are so good - they can't get the offloads going and a big part of their game is taken away.
"There's no doubt there's some pressure on him (Warburton) because certain players and certain combinations have gone well. So there will be some tough debates and discussions to have on the final make-up of what the back-row is going to be for Saturday".
Like he did so memorably previous year in the win over Wales, veteran first five-eighth Stephen Donald will take on Chiefs captaincy duty once more, when they meet the British and Irish Lions in Hamilton on Tuesday night.
All six of the additional players were named on the bench for the Chiefs game, though flyhalf Finn Russell, who was in brilliant form for Scotland in their 24-19 victory over Australia in Sydney on Saturday, could be considered unlucky not to have come straight into the starting side. We could go that way, we could potentially change and do that during the match as well.
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