TRYING to contain Ellia Green - it is something many of the world's best women's rugby sevens players have been unable to do, but when Jakiya Whitfled was given such an assignment she passed.
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It shows just how far the Bathurst talent has come since joining the national squad last November.
Whitfeld and a bulk of that squad are currently in Bathurst as head coach John Manenti looks to freshen up their training regime.
While Green, a powerful runner, prolific try-scorer and member of the Rio Olympics gold medal winning side did not make the trip to the Central West given her NRLW duties, Manenti revealed he has tested Whitfeld against her.
"A couple of weeks ago we had internal matches and she marked up against Ellia Green and she did a tremendous job, she did as well as anyone has handled her on the world series, so it goes to show how far she's come," Manenti said.
"It's been unbelievable her development, athletically she's gone through the roof. She was always obviously a great athlete, but she's come along leaps and bounds.
"Just having experienced players around her at training, the quality of the people around her helps, the quality of coaching and all that, so she's really grown enormously in that time.
"I'm really pleased, she's just a great style of girl who works really hard, she's still got a long road to do and she's still got a lot of development in her, but she's improving all the time and she's working really hard at that."
Working hard is something the entire Australian squad has done this year, even after the Tokyo Olympic Games were postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The pandemic also forced the cancellation of the final three rounds of the World Rugby Sevens Series and domestic competitions such as the AON Sevens.
It means Whitfeld and her fellow Aussie squad members have had to focus on training without having any regular competition or certainty over their immediate future.
That's why getting away for a camp in the Central West was something Manenti felt would be good for his squad.
"We've been training for a long time without going anywhere and our budget for travel, obviously Rugby Australia isn't flush for money so we couldn't do anything too elaborate, we couldn't cross any borders, we couldn't fly anywhere," he said.
"So we spoke about camping ... when I started speaking to Jakiya's Dad Mark, we decided why not base ourselves here then shoot around and go to a few different places, he's very good at organising activities and things for us.
"It's great, last night [Wednesday] we cooked dinner up on the farm and it's been good just to get them out in the fresh air, just a change of scenery. It's been a long time training not without purpose, but without a close set goal, obviously the Olympics is everyone's goal.
"We've got a couple of girls who are off in the NRLW at the moment, so it's a good opportunity to be able to get away and do something."
The squad trained at Bathurst's Ashwood Park on Tuesday morning with fans watching on, while they have another session planned for Orange on Wednesday. Laser tag and abseiling are also on the agenda.
