Much like her running style, Aoife Wafer has hit the Guinness Women's Six Nations like a wrecking ball.
Through three games, the 21-year-old has racked up a remarkable stats sheet.
In last Saturday's 36-5 win against Wales, Wafer scored a try and was named Player of the Match, which led to a second successive Player of the Round award in the championship.
With 38 carries logged across her three games, only Sam Monaghan and France's Assia Khalfaoui have brought the ball into contact more.
A look under the bonnet of those carries shows how efficient she is with the ball; her 17 broken tackles ranks highest in the championship, while she's the only non-English player to have made more than five linebreaks.
She's covered 304 metres with the ball in hand, but crucially 190 of those metres have been over the gainline, ranking fifth in the championship, but more impressively she's one of just two forwards in the top 15 of that metric.
"It's a bit of a whirlwind really," she says, as she reflects on what has been a breakthrough tournament, which began away to France two days before her 21st birthday last month.
Wafer may have exploded onto the scene in this championship, but had it not been for a lengthy absence, she'd likely have been an established player by now.
She was just 19 years old when she was given her debut by former coach Greg McWilliams in Round 3 of the 2022 championship, before a serious hamstring injury delayed her second cap until October of last year.
"I got on the pitch, got a yellow card and came off the pitch," she laughs, as she reflects on her fleeting debut in Cork two years ago.
"I got back on the pitch, got a turnover, and then the match was done. Then I had to sing in front of Musgrave Park [Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus, for those wondering]. It was like a private concert!
"My younger sister [Orla] made her Under-18s debut that same weekend for Ireland. Mam was flying over and back from – where were they – Scotland or England or something like that.
19-year-old Aoife Wafer gets presented with her first cap out on the pitch. Still loads of people hanging around Musgrave, great atmosphere. #IREvITA pic.twitter.com/CpZClJdFaJ
— Neil Treacy (@neil_treacy) April 10, 2022
"So she flew over to see her game and then back to see my game and then back out to see Orla's second game. She was a bit of a yo-yo between the two countries so it was unbelievably special.
"That week I tore my hamstring and I was out until the following February. I got back for the end of the Celtic Challenge and I have kind of been in and out with injuries and whatnot.
"I didn't participate in last year’s Six Nations for personal reasons. It has been a whirlwind."
The Blackrock flanker's rugby journey began at the age of six at Gorey RFC where she played in a mixed boys and girls team, before she had to move up to the U15 girls side at the age of 12 - where she would play alongside her future Leinster and Ireland team-mate Natasja Behan - and eventually transfer over to Enniscorthy for U16s.
"It was actually funny because my two older brothers made a deal with my mam that they could start rugby if they finished all their swimming lessons.
"So they started rugby, and I of course was left in the clubhouse and I just wanted to get stuck in, so Mam always said that I was bit of a pest and I just kept arguing with her basically that I wanted to be out with the boys and I wanted to play.
"So one day she let me go out, so didn't really look back since then.
"I was a scrum-half because I was really bossy and I was really small. I was stuck in scrum-half and eventually then I went for south-east trials which are a regional group with Leinster. I was 15 playing on the U18s team.
"Then Covid struck and [we] got back eventually for post-Covid, Leinster U18s. I was part of the first interprovincial U18 Leinster-winning team, Ireland's first ever women’s U18s team and I guess that’s kind of when I was [offered] the Sevens contract."
Wafer moved into the Ireland Sevens programme after completing her Leaving Cert, where she first came onto the radar of her current XVs team-mate Eve Higgins.
And Higgins says while she may have been an unknown quantity to those on the outside coming into this championship, she could tell from day one that the back row was a special talent.
"From the moment I first met Aoife in Sevens, like when she was 18 literally out of school, she's a hugely ambitious, hugely competitive person," Higgins said.
"Everyone in the squad is so proud to see getting her starts because she's been dealt some bad hands with injury. We’ve all seen that in the last two years.
"We’re all so proud of her because we’ve known how good a player she is and how impactful she can be on the pitch and its just brilliant to see that now that she’s had opportunities."
The give and take between the Sevens and XV's programmes has been a source of tension in the women's game in recent years, but Wafer, who starts for Ireland this afternoon against England at Twickenhem, says it provided her with a big stepping stone to her future Test career.
"I honestly don't think I would be in the position I am in today if I hadn't had Sevens experience," she added.
"It just puts such a focus on your basic, core skills – your catch, your pass, your tackle, everything – so now when you have more people around you on a pitch you know that you can back yourself to make that pass or tackle because in Sevens you are so spread out that if you miss a tackle it will probably be a try.
"I know I have my buddy to fall back on if I miss a tackle here although Declan [Danaher, defence coach] wouldn’t be too happy.
"With this Six Nations I want to come in and prove myself that I can do it and make these guys proud because they are the ones that supported me through the injury and through a lot of different things behind the scenes.
"When people say their team is their family I really do mean that when I say it. These girls are my family, they have done a lot for me, I wanted to give back to them as well."
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