Cab driver dismisses views from back seat

THE taxi driver waiting at Cardiff airport must have thought Dane Coles and Steve Hansen were off their heads.

While the All Blacks hooker and his coach refused to rubbish Wales, who limped to a 17-13 win over Fiji last weekend, the taxi driver wasn’t buying into their statements that Millennium Stadium would be a battleground on Sunday.

As he zoomed towards Cardiff the driver glared into the rearview mirror and gave his New Zealand passengers a number of reasons why Wales would flop.

‘‘That performance against Fiji was terrible,’’ he lamented. ‘‘If we play like that against the All Blacks we will be in trouble.

‘‘I think Warren Gatland [the Wales coach] is right, he doesn’t have enough time to work with the players. How much do you think you will beat us by?’’

Such sentiments might be repeated around Cardiff and the towns of Wales ahead of the All Blacks’ final test of the year.

Although Gatland made multiple changes to the side that narrowly lost to the Wallabies the previous week, he would have been angry to see his boys struggle as Nemani Nadolo scored all Fiji’s points. What’s more, Fiji played more than half the test with 14 men.

Hansen would have been just as annoyed had Coles given Gatland some hot headlines to tape to his team’s war room, so it was hardly surprising that the hooker’s assessment of Wales’ efforts bore little resemblance to what played out against Fiji.

‘‘We have to make sure we prepare well because they pushed Aussie a couple of weeks ago and had a close win against Fiji,’’ Coles said. ‘‘It comes down to the week, the preparation. We don’t want to look too far ahead . . . We just want to get down to business and go to work.’’

Coles is guaranteed to be in the All Blacks’ match-day 23, but it is uncertain whether he will start ahead of veteran Keven Mealamu, who is poised to over- take Colin Meads as New Zealand’s most experienced player. If Mealamu takes the field he will earn his 362nd first-class appearance and 123rd test cap.

Hansen believed Wales might have been guilty of thinking about the All Blacks test and, subsequently, their performance against Fiji suffered.

‘‘They will all be threats, they’re a good side. I’m not sure why they are only ranked where they are [seventh], they play like a higher team on the big days.’’