NICOLE Nathan has been competing with - pushing - twin sister Leilani since they were born.
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The siblings were delivered five minutes apart, with Leilani the eldest by definition.
They have been side-by-side ever since.
The sisters grew up playing in the same soccer and touch footy teams, moved from Canberra to Newcastle to go to school together and are now studying the same course - PE teaching - at the University of Newcastle.
Next week, both will travel down the MI for their first formal session with the NSW Waratahs Super W train-on squad.
"It will be an awesome experience, especially working with and learning off all the Aussie players," Leilani said. "We just want to get as much out of it as we can. The fact we are both in the squad makes it that extra bit special."
Selection in the 47-women squad, which includes fellow Hunter stars Katrina Barker and Maya Stewart, continues a meteoric rise for the teenagers.
Both came through the junior ranks at Hamilton, where Leilani plays in the back-row and Nicole is a centre.
In the past 18 months, they have taken their games to new levels.
They made their debuts for NSW Country last year and this year were part of the University of New England side that competed in the national sevens series.
"We haven't had a weekend off in a few months," Nicole said. "Everything has been footy, footy, footy. With the sevens, we have been on the go, flat out. That has helped with our fitness. We have pretty much no days off. Then we have the extra gym sessions. It has helped us massively. This was one of our main goals. We played Country last year and wanted to get as much rugby experience as we could to try and make the train-on squad."
The Nathans were born into a rugby-playing family in Canberra where they used to watch their older brothers and "always wanted to play".
The opportunity to put on the boots arrived when they moved to Newcastle to attend school and live with their aunt and uncle Nicole and David Pitfield.
"We started off in year nine playing high school competitions," Leilani said. "Our family has always been into rugby. We used to watch our brothers play and always wanted to play."
Although introduced to rugby at high school, their competitive spirit was spawned much earlier.
"We are majorly competitive," Leilani said. "If one of us is doing something the other is doing the same thing and making sure we are keeping up with each other, pushing each other. We have always been in the same team. We feel comfortable with each other. We do everything together and are even doing the same course at Uni - PE teaching. It helps when it comes to training, you always have someone pushing you."
The squad trains Tuesday and Thursday nights at the Waratahs headquarters in Sydney, and the twins will car pool with Stewart and Barker, who were part of the championship-winning side this season.
"We had a brief talk with Maya," Nicole said. "She congratulated us and said to keep putting in the hard yards. I'm sure we will learn more when we travel down with them."