Dear Editor,

I am 8 years old.

Some of my little friends say there is no such thing as a Wallabies team capable of winning on the high veld.

Papa says: 'If you see it in BackPageLead it's so.' Please tell me the truth; can the Wallabies win?

VIRGINIA O'HAYMAKER,
Sydney

Dear Virginia,

Your little friends are wrong and quite likely New Zealanders and South Africans living here illegally. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age.

Like referees officiating in an All Blacks match, they do not believe except [what] they see everybody but Richie McCaw doing. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, especially All Black and Springbok minds Virginia, are little.

In this great rugby universe of ours, Tri Nations Man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge recently obtained by Robbie Deans.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Wallabies team capable of winning at altitude in South Africa. It exists as certainly as love and generosity and running rugby exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy.

Alas! How dreary would be the world if there was no Australian running rugby. It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in making sheep jokes and mimicking the South African accent. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in the Wallabies' chances on Saturday! You might as well not believe in fairies! And it only takes one look at the Australian tight five's recent performances to prove their existence. You might get your papa to hire men to fly to South Africa and threaten the Wallabies with large blunt instruments, but what would that prove?

Nobody sees Australia win at altitude, but that is no sign that such a Wallabies team does not exist. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn or the Australian backs adequately supporting the ball carrier? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there.

Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world, especially Kiwis and Saffers. You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest ABs and Boks that ever lived, could tear apart.

Only faith, fancy, poetry, love and romance can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world the only real certainty is the All Blacks will choke at next year's World Cup. No win for the Wallabies on the high veld! A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, Australia will continue to play South Africa at altitude and will continue to make glad the heart of ball-in-hand enthusiasts.

(The Wallabies will play Tri Nations Tests against the Springboks in Pretoria on Saturday week and Bloemfontein on September 4.)