Let this be a lesson to you, Aussie: always get it in writing. Just a year ago the late head of the International Rugby Board, Vernon Pugh, told our transtasman nemesis they could keep the Webb Ellis Cup if they managed to win the title for a third time, as
Brazil did with soccer's first World Cup trophy. Safe enough promise at the time - who thought they had it in them? But the Wallabies' Lazarus act has the IRB backpedalling. Apparently Pugh's promise was "off-the-cuff" and never formalised.
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Visiting French politician Renaud Mueslier is promoting New Zealand and France as "brothers in arms" - but not on the rugby field. The French Minister of State for Foreign Affairs will be in Sydney for Saturday's World Cup final and has his embassy in Wellington hunting out a large-screen TV so he can watch tonight's third-place playoff. "We would have preferred to be in the final," he said. "So tonight I'll be in a New Zealand bar trying to sing 'let the better man win' - but, of course, I hope France will win."
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Sour junket: Britain's Sports Minister, Richard Caborn, in Sydney for the cup final between Australia and England, has been summoned home for a crucial parliamentary vote. London's Evening Standard said Caborn was furious, protesting that he would find it almost impossible to return in time for Saturday's final. When asked how Caborn felt about being told to return, his spokesman replied: "I can't tell you. It's before the watershed."
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Radio Sport's vastly improved breakfast show, with Graeme Hill, speculated yesterday on who would want the prize in the "Win Reuben Thorne's Ford" promotion. And, the show wondered, did the car - like its owner - never get out of first gear or go beyond 2000 revs per minute.
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John Mitchell went to the fancy-dress ball done up as a pumpkin. He was hoping at the stroke of midnight to turn into a coach.
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