PRIME MINISTER:
[tape starts].... I saw the last game in Sydney and it was a terrific match, and New Zealand outplayed Australia very plainly. They performed extremely well. It's not that our team played poorly, It's just that your team played extremely well . We hope things are different on Saturday night but I'm looking forward to it. I haven't been to a rugby match at Eden Park before. It's a very famous ground and it will be quite an experience.
JOURNALIST:
Score line prediction?
PRIME MINISTER:
No I'm not getting into that. Never write the Wallabies off though, ever.
JOURNALIST:
You're going to be sitting alongside our Prime Minister or within the vicinity. What's it going to do for diplomatic relations?
PRIME MINISTER:
It won't affect them at all. You don't allow sport to govern diplomatic relations. But we've always had a very healthy rivalry in football and New Zealand's been a remarkable rugby country given her population and I've always admired the capacity of the New Zealanders at rugby. Over the last few years we've done better. You've now produced a very strong team and you are going to be a very formidable challenge in the World Cup. But as I was saying don't write the Wallabies off, and there are all sorts of theories around about peaking too early aren't there.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, how pleasing was the news on the Solomons last night?
PRIME MINISTER:
It was very good. I was very pleased about that. I think the surrender of Howard Keke is a huge step forward and a great example of the impact of the intervention and if we can continue to build on the early successes it will be a great compliment to the cooperative spirit of all of the countries of the Pacific region. Thank you.
[Ends]