In with the Ireland sevens team since September, she admitted earlier this month that she was ‘not naïve’ about the task ahead and declared that it had been more challenging than expected.

Her coach offered a take with a different slant.

“Doing really well,” said Allan Temple-Jones. “Vikki Wall is an elite athlete, she’s a high-performing athlete and she’s settling in really well. She’s come from elite sport in Gaelic football and WAFL and she’s really fitted in well. She’s committed herself to the programme, which is unbelievable for us.

“She’s got a lot of nuances to learn within the rugby and coming across with regards to the different code but credit to her. A lot of our athletes are learning from her and her high performance mindset, which is great for us. But she’s really, really taken to rugby and she’s showing some really good improvements which is great to us.” The South African isn’t just glossing over any issues.

Temple-Jones was happy to point out that Wall’s task is far more different than a swap from XVs to sevens. She’s not even three months into it yet but another step on the path will be taken this week in Dubai where she will be part of an Irish invitational team.

That’s basically a development side, not the main squad that has already qualified for the Olympics and one which will compete in the same venue this weekend in the first round of the HSBC World Series.

Other Gaelic footballers have followed similar paths. Lucy Mulhall is a star of the main Irish sevens system, Stacey Flood has made the same crossover, but time is against Wall as she looks to hit enough markers in the eight months left before the Paris Games.

So, how long could this all take?

“To be brutally honest, a transfer athlete like that and the nuances around the tackle and the breakdown, [she is] probably a bit ahead of schedule and that’s full credit to her,” said her coach. “She’s asking good questions, she’s getting stuck in at training.

“I don’t think you have a set timeline with regards to integration. A lot of Australians take two or three years to bring into their system from even touch rugby. Full credit to her, she’s really committed to the program which is great for us.

“I would say she’s ahead of schedule to be honest, yeah.” 

Wall has singled out a number of areas of particular importance: tackle technique, which is much lower than in Aussie Rules, running patterns, intensity and fitness levels. Her biggest learning to date, unsurprisingly, has been the understanding not to overthink everything.

Temple-Jones can see the same athletic potential that her coaches in Meath and Melbourne utilised to such good effect but the two-time Footballer of the Year's professionalism of approach is clearly another of her greatest assets.

“Yes, there’s a lot of physical attributes she brings, but an unbelievable high-performance culture [as well] that she’s using to help grow and refine within our group. So it's really positive at the moment.” 

Wall has already played games behind closed doors against France and Australia but there is other experimentation taking place in squad terms with plans to facilitate a greater cross-pollination of players this year between the women’s XVs and sevens systems.

Beibhinn Parsons, Aoibhean Reilly and Eve Higgins, all key members of the sevens squad, featured in the inaugural WXV3 tournament in the Middle East recently and they are in the mix to play the longer form game again come the Six Nations.

“That’s our key aim, to make sure we can grow that pool of women’s rugby players, not just sevens players, not just 15s players. We’re all sitting in the same office upstairs [at the IRFU high-performance centre in Abbotsown].

“There’s a lot more cross-collaboration through that so at the moment, yes, those are the three or four girls that will be hopping across but there maybe more. There may be one or two that are coming from possibly the 15s and global WXV that play for us in Dubai.”