Makazole Mapimpi's story is one of rugby's great journeys. Raised in the rural village of Tsholomnqa outside East London, he attended Jim Mvabaza SS School in King William's Town and came through amateur club rugby rather than any elite academy, breaking into the Border Bulldogs side in 2014 in the Vodacom Cup and Currie Cup qualifiers.
Stints with the Southern Kings and the Free State Cheetahs propelled him to the Sharks in 2018, where he has amassed more than 100 senior appearances across Super Rugby, the URC, Currie Cup and EPCR - winning the 2023/24 EPCR Challenge Cup and the 2024 Currie Cup. His Springbok debut came in June 2018 against Wales, and his strike rate since has been extraordinary.
A double World Cup winner (2019, 2023), Mapimpi made history as the first South African to score a try in a World Cup final. Now 36, the beloved wing remains a talisman and a standard-setter for the Sharks' next generation.
