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Robbie Henshaw has plan for stopping Sonny Bill Williams

Robbie Henshaw looks up to Sonny Bill Williams. Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile via Getty Images

Robbie Henshaw has hatched a plan for his "surreal" clash with superstar Sonny Bill Williams -- shut him down, but do not hunt him down.

Ireland centre Henshaw has branded Williams his most talented opponent ahead of the British & Irish Lions' showdown with Auckland Blues on Wednesday.

The Leinster star admitted Williams' star power commands attention, but vowed the Lions will not be so wrapped up in the All Blacks midfielder as to lose focus elsewhere.

Williams has taken turns as a champion in rugby league and boxing as well as gracing the All Blacks' consecutive World Cup triumphs.

Asked if he had ever seen anyone as talented as Williams, Henshaw replied: "I really haven't, I was a big fan of his when I was a kid, whether that was performing in league or for the All Blacks.

"I suppose to be coming up against him is pretty surreal. I'm looking forward to playing against him and having a go. We definitely tweak our defensive technique for someone like that -- just not too much.

"If he's a one-out runner and there's no one with him, obviously I'll look to come in and make a double hit on him and try and stop his offload threat but you have to obviously look at the guys who are flooding through as well.

"Often as a part of defending you have to go a double man tackle on him, one high and one low, and try and stop the offloads around it. It's definitely going to be a tough challenge but I think we have the right man in place to execute a good defensive system.

"Across the board they're a quality outfit and we know they can pull something out of nothing. They're highly skilled players across the board. Firstly we have to look at ourselves and look at our own performance, and get our own stuff right first before we overly focus on them.

"But definitely we know what's coming and we'll deal with it when it comes to us, but I think we've trained well for it, and we've prepared ourselves well for it, so we just need to execute properly tomorrow."