The remarkable rise of flanker Vincent Tshituka from a child refugee to the Springboks Test team will be completed on Saturday when he faces Italy in Pretoria.
He fled to South Africa from the Democratic Republic of Congo with his family in 2002 to avoid politically induced violence. Later, while studying at the University of Johannesburg, he fell in love with rugby. It was an unusual choice given that he came from a country where football is the dominant sport.
Tshituka caught the eye of scouts from the Johannesburg-based Lions, one of the four major rugby franchises in South Africa, and quickly established himself in the matchday 23.
In 2022, he moved to another of the big four, the Sharks in Durban, and became part of a Springbok-stacked pack.
But to be eligible for the Springboks he had to become a South African citizen, which the 26-year-old achieved recently.