John Key has jokingly promised All Black captain Richie McCaw a knighthood if he leads the All Blacks to a win in the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand.
The Prime Minister told a breakfast of 180 expat New Zealanders in Tokyo that he'd talked with McCaw the otherday about how he had brought back knighthoods.
He told McCaw: "It's very simple. You lose the Rugby World Cup and in my mind you will always be Richie McCaw, a great bloke. And you win the World Cup, it's 'arise, Sir Richard'."
Key spent an hour at the Ikubunkan school in Tokyo, from where many students go to New Zealand for a year's secondary schooling.
In a question-and-answer session, he was asked by a former Tawa College student, 18-year-old Hisao Konuma (who played prop for the school last year) if he could take him to the All Blacks' test against the Wallabies because he could not get a ticket.
Key arranged for the Foreign Affairs ministry to give him a ticket.
The Prime Minister arrives back in New Zealand tomorrow lunchtime.
