These boots are made for scoring...
As newly selected Springbok women's prop Zilungile Makaula grew up, the one thing on her mind, except church on Sundays, was playing rugby.
The 92kg, 1,68m 25-year-old spent her childhood in the dusty mountains of Mount Frere in the Eastern Cape. Now a Mayville resident, she is the only woman from KwaZulu-Natal to be selected for the recently established 26-member national women's team.
Makaula, who is studying for her BA honours degree in sport science at the University of KwaZulu-Natal's Westville campus, is considered the best woman prop in the country. And she said she was raring to take on Wales on May 29 in a 2006 World Cup qualifier.
Speaking to The Mercury on Thursday, she told of the fulfilment of her childhood dream to play "full-contact" rugby.
"Life growing up was rural in all ways for me. I used to fetch wood from the mountains and travel long distances to the nearest river for water. But there was one thing which kept me happy after doing all this - rugby." However, Makaula and the other girls were never allowed to play full-contact rugby.
That changed and she got her chance to play "full-contact" in 2001, after several women from the former University of Durban-Westville started their own rugby team.
Later that year, she started playing for the Jaguars club.
However, her road to the Springbok side was not smooth-sailing.
To ensure selection in the national team, Makaula trained twice a day, six days week, from last November until January.
She has been described as a "super sportswoman" by her coach and biokineticist Junaid Azmuth.
"She is the best in the country. She is the strongest, fastest and most mobile woman I have ever seen," said Azmuth. "The way she is playing at the moment, I am confident she will get a scholarship to study overseas."
Makaula is positive about her team's chances next month: "Although we have not played together as a national side I think we are going to do well next month."
"But women's rugby in South Africa still has a long way to go."