VIKKI Wall has revealed her bid to represent her country at the Olympics is her toughest challenge.
Wall, the two-time All-Ireland winner with the Meath footballers, has paused on her AFLW career with North Melbourne to embrace a brand new challenge in Sevens rugby.
It was around Christmas last year that she started a conversation with IRFU performance director David Nucifora about coming on board.
READ MORE: Vikki Wall is on an Olympics fast track with Ireland's Rugby Sevens
Eventually, Wall joined up with the Sevens squad in August. She has been on a crash course ever since.
"It's been tough, a massive transition into a brand new sport, one I wouldn't have had much exposure to growing up," she said.
"I'm really enjoying it and enjoying the challenges - but, definitely, there are a lot of challenges.
"It wasn't something where I turned around one day and said, 'surprise, I'm not going back to Australia, I'm going to come here'.
"I was talking with people in Australia, talking with people around me - then going back to one or two people that I trust and making a decision and obviously now I'm here."
Wall, 24, played for the first time in recent training outings against Australia and France.
"I got a rude awakening, definitely, in the first few minutes, it was tough," she admitted. "But it's good to get exposure to it.
"I have to rein it in in terms of doing too much thinking, whatever I'm doing - bring it down a few levels and stick to the basics. But I definitely have a significant amount to learn."
The women's Sevens squad qualified for the Olympics last May. "You definitely have to be conscious of that and then you also have to back yourself as well," said Wall.
"So it's that kind of better of two evils, you can't walk in the door and be screaming and shouting but you have to have some form of confidence from where I've come from previously."
It is just one of numerous reasons why the Dunboyne athlete feels the process has been "more challenging" than she envisaged.
Going from tackling high in Australia to low in rugby is a big adjustment. "Things that I do almost instinctively that I could definitely transfer easier to AFLW, definitely don't transfer to here," Wall confided.
"Even the differences in terms of the quickness of thought and things like that, I'm not saying the other two sports don't have it but it's just a different level."
Time may not be on her side in her bid to compete in Paris 2024 but she is giving it everything in her bid to make it. Next stop, the International Invitational Tournament in Dubai in a fortnight.
"First and foremost I've been able to play for Ireland, that's an unbelievable opportunity," Wall said. "If you told me that when I was younger I wouldn't have even foresaw being in rugby.
"Then there's the Olympics at the end of the year. You're not going to lie to yourself, it's there. But there's so much to do before that - and I'm not naive in knowing how far I am off that at the moment.
"So I'm breaking it down into next day, next month, whatever - just setting myself small goals.
"I don't just have one outcome goal of making the squad in 2024. There's so much more I want to achieve within Sevens Rugby."
Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email alerts.
