Intro:

Australia captain Mark says the defending champions are 'very hard to beat' ahead of their opening Commonwealth Games match against Wales on Saturday. Midfielder Eddie Ockenden also looks ahead to the clash in Glasgow, Scotland.

Script:

SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Knowles, Kookaburras captain (On if the absence of some of the team's most respected veterans will give other teams belief they can be defeated):

"In some ways it does give other teams a chance because they think there's a difference in the players or the coaching staff, but from within we know if we play at our absolute best we're very hard to beat. It is maybe in [their] heads, but also if they look to other things they see a 6-1 in a World Cup final a month ago the is very hard to beat."

SOUNDBITE (English) Eddie Ockenden, Australian player (On the expectations on the team):

"We've been in my career ranked number one going into nearly every single tournament, so it's there, but on a bigger scale because we've won four Commonwealth Games gold medals in a row. To deal with it you don't have to ignore it, you just acknowledge that you're probably going to be favourites and after that you don't forget about, but you don't really focus on games like that. We've got games coming up against great teams before we even make the semi-finals. That's pretty much the way to look at it and deal with it."