Erin King reckons her international debut for Ireland against Australia on Saturday came in just her fourth senior game of rugby.
The 20-year-old had previously played for Leinster and Ireland's Under-18s sides but her involvement with the Sevens set-up for the last three years has limited her exposure to the 15s code.
Back row King and five other replacements were sent on in the 52nd minute when Ireland held a 17-5 lead over the visitors in Belfast.
The Wicklow woman, who came on for captain Edel McMahon, buzzed around the field and was instrumental in two of the next three tries as Ireland ran out impressive 36-10 victors.
"They made it easy for me.
"My mindset was just, like, let’s see how far we can push this Aussie team.
"I know the girls started off really well in that first half, but I knew we had more in us.
"I guess coming from Sevens, I’m quite used to getting very hyped and coming on for a short space of time, and just giving it my everything.
"I was just doing it for the team, seeing how much I could help out the team and seeing how far we could push the Aussies."
Asked how many senior games she had played, she replied: "In the last few years, I haven’t played very many.
"I’ve played three senior 15s games for Old Belvedere, but that’s about it.
"Not very many, but I guess the Sevens skills do transfer over and the last two weeks in training camp have been really helpful.
"The girls have just been teaching me loads and the coaches, everything I knew to do out there I’ve learnt to do in the last two weeks really.
"I wasn’t too nervous. I have a lot of experience on the World Series playing the Sevens, so I have experience at international level.
"Then I guess there has been so much clarity and the coaches and the girls, especially the forwards in the line-out, have helped me so much.
"I was obviously a little bit nervous. I had butterflies in my stomach when we were singing the anthems, but it was all good butterflies and it was more just excitement."
King played for Ireland at the Paris Olympics and 'went viral' for being part of a double act with Emily Lane as she held up her team-mate over her head as she claimed a restart against Great Britain.
Sevens players Lane, Eve Higgins, Vicky Elmes Kinlan, Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe and Stacey Flood also featured for Ireland against the Wallaroos and King said they all helped to make her debut more special.
"It was really nice getting my first cap alongside Vicky Kinlan, because we’ve been playing Sevens together the last three years.
"That was lovely and they’ve made the transition a little bit smoother.
"But saying that, the girls that are already in 15s, we see them around the HPC.
"We’re one big woman’s programme, so they made it really easy for me. They taught me everything and they’re always there to help."
Sydney-born King was speaking before returning to the celebrations where she was actually looking forward to singing her song in front of the squad, the traditional way to mark a debut.
"I’m still thinking of what I’ll sing," she said.
"If you’ve any suggestions, let me know.
"I’m thinking a bit of Mariah Carey, I don’t know. Something along those lines. I’ll be well able for it."
On Tuesday head coach Scott Bemand will name a 30-woman squad to travel to Vancouver to take on New Zealand, USA and Canada in the WXV1 series.
"It's a really tough discussion and a year ago perhaps those discussions weren’t quite so tough but it’s where we want to be," he said.
"It’s where we need to be to keep growing, to keep getting better, so we’ve got some tough calls to make.
"Is 30 enough? I don’t know what the numbers will be in a World Cup, but it could be a 32.
"So, there’s going to be a couple that miss out but the advantage for us is that it means we’ve got to compete really hard to get on it and people are going to have keep taking their game forward."
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
