THE SUN is about to set, signalling perfect training time for the Zimbiru Titans rugby team in rural Zimbabwe. With no rugby ground, the team plays on a football pitch. Most of the players are barefoot, only a few privileged ones wearing torn football boots or trainers.
Despite limited resources, the club has defied the odds to become the only rural-based team to compete in the women’s rugby league in Zimbabwe, a southern African country where sport is generally considered to be for men from elite backgrounds only.
Based in Goromonzi, a rural district 20 miles from the capital Harare, the club had four players picked for the women’s U20 national team that competed in neighbouring South Africa last August.
“I was extremely happy when I was selected for the national team, I couldn’t believe it,” says 19-year-old Angela Makoni. “It was not in my imagination to think that from
