“It just shows you how good we were tracking as a team leading into what would have been the 2020 Olympics. For us to come away with those wins and then be crowned champions for the season, even without it being completely finished, shows you how hard this group of girls and management work.

“To know it’s been postponed and cancelled is what made me not so upset. If it was cancelled, it would be a completely different story. Knowing I can still represent our country, team and family next year is still a driving force. It’s exciting because if we can get back to [our form] or even one step further, it’s like an extra year to fine-tune preparations.”

But impressive end-of-year awards haul or not, Nathan-Wong would still have to follow government rules as it tried to eliminate Covid-19 by sealing off the country. International tournaments came to a standstill and Nathan-Wong saw out the competitive drought with her partner’s family in Northland.

“We had a break due to what was happening in the world and the Sevens pretty much got put on hold because we couldn’t travel as they closed the borders and tried to reduce the spread,” she said.

“We got told we could go home for a period of time and keep our training up as everything was unpredictable. ‘Are the Olympics going ahead or not?’ We were kind of in no man’s land for a bit.

“We were going up north for my partner’s mum’s birthday but the next day or so New Zealand was put into level four lockdown. You had to stay where you were. But it was the best thing, it’s just beautiful and quite isolated, surrounded by nature.”

News of the sevens series cancellation and Olympics postponement soon followed, and the domestic Farah Palmer Cup became the only action for a while.

“Not going to lie, motivation dropped a little bit during that lockdown. At first it was like, ‘oh, cool we get to do innovative training and drills’, then the Olympics was postponed and the Sevens World Series cancelled. You kind of start thinking ‘Why am I doing this? What am I training for? There’s nothing coming up.’ We were in a lot of uncertainty but I look forward to getting those minutes out on the field,” Nathan-Wong said.

Northland finished third in the northern pool in what was their second appearance in the competition. While it was a rather spontaneous stint, donning the Northland blue was a special moment for Nathan-Wong’s extended family.

“One of my goals was to one day play for Northland so to do it mid-career is pretty amazing. I thought it would happen later in my career, just because of how busy sevens is,” she said.

Nathan-Wong is back alongside the likes of captain Sarah Hirini, last season’s star Stacey Fluhler, and all-time highest tryscorer Portia Woodman. The Black Ferns, who have won a staggering six of eight women’s World Sevens Series, have yet to taste Olympics gold. Rugby sevens debuted at Rio 2016, with the Australians pipping them 24-17 in the final.

“Long-term, yes the Olympics is the main goal. We’re not 100 per cent sure what’s going on with the World Series or the Olympics – it’s not completely certain – so we have that long-term goal but staying quite short-term focused,” Nathan-Wong said.

“Getting back into sevens shape, playing my first tournament early December at the Red Bull Ignite7. That’s the first time the sevens will have been on the TV since February. I’m excited. It’s going to be a grind, but it’s not fun if it’s not a good challenge.”