PETER LONARD: It was a great start. Got my backside tanned today but we finished, it quite could have been ugly. We could have gone down 5-1, so to finish 3 1/2 - 2 1/2 was great.
STEPHEN LEANEY: I think today the last three holes were, I guess, in our favor today, which is a good way to be on this sort of format. Because I know that my match with Fred today, we were up and then down and I think Rob had about a 15-footer actually stay in the match on 16 and we won the last two holes. Those half points come Sunday, it can always turn out to be big and that's what happened today. As Peter said, it looked ugly after quite a long day. Gary was saying he probably would have taken 4-2 down, but to actually come out in front was a huge result for us.
Q. What was your and Rob's frame of mind coming to 16 tee? You guys were dormie at that point; right?
STEPHEN LEANEY: We were still 2-down I kept driving it in the first cut of rough, so I was trying to hit the fairway. It was nice to hit one in the fairway and we also knew that we had to make 4 to have any chance and Rob made a very good putt. And Jay hit what looked like to be a good tee shot on 17. And when they were 2-up, he had the honor and hit it in the hazard, but then Rob made a very good spin with a 7-iron and got on the green to get down 18.
PETER LONARD: We were fortunate to win a hole with a 5 as it turned out. I was fortunate that Rob hit his second shot far enough back that it had a chance to hit it on that green. Kind of lucky with their second shot, but again, those sorts of half points are very important for us.
Q. The International Team showed a hell of a lot of mongol (ph) for the last three holes.
PETER LONARD: I think Aussies and South Africans are pretty similar in that regard.
Q. Expect to be sitting tomorrow morning?
STEPHEN LEANEY: At least we can sleep in tomorrow. That will be nice.
Q. Maybe that's why you're here.
PETER LONARD: Could be.
Q. Did it seem like you have an advantage, the swing at the end, with a one-point lead?
PETER LONARD: I think you have an advantage on the ground that we sort of -- I don't think we all played our best, but we managed to hang on and sneak in front today. You know, I think at the end of the day, if you can win each section even if it's by half a point -- well, 3 1/2 - 2 1/2, you're going to be there in the end.
You know, I think it was a good mental win. We really had our backs to the walls, and when I finished, like I said, I was quite expecting to be 4-2, maybe even 5-1, so I think it was good.
STEPHEN LEANEY: I think from our point of view, the last couple of times we've lost big. We lost, I think the first day, fairly heavily. So you know to come back from looking like we were going to go down sort of 4 1/2 - 1 1/2, whatever, I think that's a big boost for us. This team is a very strong team on paper, I guess both teams are very strong, but if you look at the World Rankings, the Americans have the advantage. If we give those guys a 4-2 lead or are 5-up with lead, it's always hard to get it back. But it's nice to have our nose in front early on.
Q. I know this is the first one for both of you, but the Americans won all five matches in the opening session last time, three years ago. Was that brought up at all in any team meetings?
PETER LONARD: No.
STEPHEN LEANEY: We just all knew that we had to get off to a good start, whether it's Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup, you don't want to get behind early.
PETER LONARD: I don't think anyone spoke about Presidents Cups.
Q. Just me.
PETER LONARD: Just you, yeah.
Q. What's more important right now, one point lead or the momentum/adrenaline that you guys seem to have?
PETER LONARD: I think the momentum is the important thing. I think the actual fact that knowing we can be 5-1 down and looking down the barrel of the gun and we can still put it out somehow. So I think that's probably the most important.
JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Peter, Stephen, thank you very much.
End of FastScripts.
