Centre Eve Higgins was just 16 years of age when she was first called up to the Ireland Sevens squad and two years later she was offered a contract.
Higgins has flourished for Ireland in the Sevens set up all whilst playing for Railway Union in the XV code.
Now off the back of a dream summer at the Olympics in Paris, her focus has switched to XVs as Ireland prepare to test themselves against some of the best teams in the world at the XV1 tournament in Canada.
Higgins is on a term loan from the Sevens and said that despite the differences in the two codes, she sees her experience in both of them as a massive positive.
“A lot of us have come from that Olympics after a few weeks off and now coming into this environment it’s great,” she said.
“A lot of people do talk about the difference between Sevens and XVs and how it’s two different teams, but we’re training under the same roof and we’re all here.
“It’s also a big positive because we have such good resources here.
“It’s not like I’m ever fully gone from XVs or fully gone from Sevens.
Ireland open their women’s XV1 campaign against New Zealand at BC Place in Vancouver in the early hours of Sunday morning.