When we scheduled them, they weren't number one, but we expected a challenge. The rankings are based a lot on tradition, but it can change. I by no means think we have the most talented team in the country, but we played hard.

[This is just one of a vast number of plays and operas Stein has scheduled over the next five years, including Oedipus at Colonus with Michel Piccoli in Paris, a trio of Tchaikovsky's Pushkin-based operas in Lyons, Henze's The Bassarids in Amsterdam, Monteverdi's Return of Ulysses in Strasbourg, Botho Strauss's The Park in Italy and Shakespeare's Richard II in Russia.] It's a nightmare, ... I think I should cancel some. Or perhaps I should ask them to give me the money now so that, when I die, they will have paid me a third without getting the show. Then I can spin in my grave laughing.

I don't know -- it's like, 'I'm coming for that Number One Spot,' ... Somehow that's how I've always been, and I just tapped into it.

At the moment unless we hear something or unless we are advised otherwise the tour goes ahead as scheduled.

I don't know where they're getting their rankings from.

They are the form team of the competition and unquestionably New Zealand's number one team; it's a great challenge for us,