When Brittany Hogan went to her first Ireland international at Aviva Stadium, the idea that eight years later she could be representing her nation on the same patch of grass was alien.
To be clear, playing for Ireland wasn't an alien idea. Playing for Ireland at the Aviva was.
She would have been 20-years-old when she saw the Irish men’s team take on USA at Lansdowne Road in that game in November 2018, and by that stage was playing Interpro rugby with Ulster and involved with Ireland Sevens.
Sunday’s first ever standalone women’s international against Scotland at the Aviva will be a dream come true, even if she believes the idea of it once seemed too far-fetched to even be a dream.
"Never had it in my mind that it was possible," Hogan says, as she recalls her first Aviva trip.
"At the moment, I was just playing for the Ulster Women, and never thought that this could have been something for us.
"I thought that it was the home base of Irish rugby, but there was never girls playing, there was never women playing on that pitch.
"But the past couple of years, the way that women's rugby has grown, it has become more prevalent that it could be a possibility, and here we are getting prepared to play there."
There had been a previous women’s international at the Aviva in 2014, tagged on as part of a double-header when Ireland played Italy in that year’s Six Nations.
Ireland won 39-0 that afternoon, although photographs from that day would suggest the vast majority of spectators had filed out of Lansdowne Road before the women’s teams made it to the pitch.
On Sunday, they will have the stadium all to themselves, and 30,000 supporters behind them, as ticket sales continue to rise by around 500 each day.
It’s eight months since the IRFU confirmed plans to stage Sunday’s clash with Scotland at the Aviva, with that announcement dropping the day before Ireland’s World Cup quarter-final against France last September.
And Hogan believes the tournament in England will have a lasting legacy on the women’s game.
"The change has been class. Whenever I first started playing rugby for Ulster even, there would be maybe 100 people coming to support you, and that was mostly your family and your friends," she added.
"The fact that we've got that 30,000 hit for this weekend is just out of my expectations.
"I think a lot of that comes down for the World Cup in England, they did such a good job with the visibility, they did such a good job with their media side of things, and promoting it, and our Irish rugby media got on top of that, making the most out of this sport - that is the number one fastest growing sport in the world - so I can't believe it, but we deserve it, and I'm quite grateful for it."
The back row forward has grown to be comfortable on the big occasion and in large stadiums. There were 77,000 people at Twickenham when Ireland opened the championship against England, and even the 17,000 supporters at Stade Marcel Michelin in Clermont made twice the noise.
Even with her new club, Sale Sharks, she had the experience of playing at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium against Saracens.
And the 27-year-old says the big occasions are there to be embraced.
"I suppose the build-up to a game like this is one that you can't hide from, in my mind anyway," she says.
"I like to live my life as happy and as positive as I can, so the fact that you're going to be walking around Dublin with however many people coming round, and you have your family texting you, that kind of just drives me a little bit more than it drives the nerves.
"Because there's been quite a few of those bigger attendances, I'm kind of used to that noise, so I just use it as energy.
"Me, personally, I just love it and I bounce off the girls, I bounce off the team bus going in, walking in and seeing all the people, they're there to support you and that's it, so you just kind of have to take that, it drives you.
"At the end of the day, it's the rugby that's on the pitch as well, that's what people are coming to watch, so the fact that the rugby is getting better and the rugby is becoming more of an importance, I think is the big change."
While Sunday’s occasion has naturally dominated the conversation this week, Hogan insists it hasn’t been a distraction as they prepare to face Scotland, with whom they have developed a fierce rivalry in recent years.
Nine of the last 10 games between the sides have been one-score matches, Ireland winning six and Scotland winning four, the most recent of which was a dramatic 26-19 Scottish win in Edinburgh last year.
"Scotland and Ireland games are very, very fun to play.
"We have such a similar style of play, we're very structured in our defence and attack, we kind of know each other inside out, we're two very well coached sides, so the games are high ball-in-play minutes, high number of phases, so they're tough to break down.
"Scotland are a very good side, they play to the edges, their ship is run very well by Helen Nelson, so we're going to need our support," the flanker, who is set for her 42nd cap this weekend, added.
Hogan scored two tries in last weekend’s 33-12 win against Wales in an all-action performance, with 22 carries and 12 tackles.
And while those two tries came from a combined distance of around a metre and a half, she admitted it was pleasing to punch them in from close range after Ireland’s struggles converting against France in the previous round.
"I was frustrated after France, frustrated after one held up and then one disallowed, just me personally anyway, I took that on the chin.
"That really, really annoyed me, my team put us in that position and I felt like I let them down by those two things that happened.
"It's been a work-on that we've had since then. I've been really, really strict on my details, so thankfully it's improved in that respect."
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