In the space of less than 24 hours, Josh Walker went from playing some muck around sevens at Moree training to lacing up the boots against some of the best exponents of the game in the world.
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The Bulls back answered a last minute SOS to play for the Australian Pacific side at the Santos Festival of Rugby, which got underway under a sun-drenched sky at Narrabri on Friday.
"That was pretty exciting, Joey (Joe de Dassel - his brother James was the manager of the side) called me at work today," Walker explained on Friday.
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"I was a bit nervous about it because I haven't done much running since last year, so I'm pretty unfit.
"But it's pretty exciting playing with this quality of sevens."
A carpenter with Zachary Knapman, he did have "to do a bit of convincing with the boss" to get an early mark to play, and arrived in time to run on for the second half of their first game against NSW.
"We're pretty flat out at work," Walker said.
"But I told him what it was for and he's always pretty supportive of footy."
Like playing for the Classic Wallabies against the Central North Barbarians two years ago, Friday's footy was an experience the 22-year old won't forget in a hurry, especially given he scored a try against the Aussie men's side.
He scored Australia Pacific's opening try right on half-time.
"It was fantastic. I think I got a little bit lucky, there was just a hole right where I picked it up. So I didn't have to do much work," he said.
"But that was pretty exciting.
"I've got my dad and my brother here watching and I could hear them cheering from the sideline."
The pace was frenetic and unlike anything most of the crowd, which swelled during the day, had witnessed before.
Outgunned in the first half, the Australian Pacific side launched a spirited fightback in the second half - with Maurice Longbottom racing 80m before setting up captain Nick Malouf to seal the win late in the match.
It's not the first time Walker has come up against the Aussie side.
He played a few years ago with the Northern NSW Hogs, a invitational side featuring a host of Central North talent, and said he had "missed it (sevens).
"We went to Darwin, we went to Cresent Head, Hamilton. We went all around playing sevens against a lot of these teams here," he said.
"We played Australia in Darwin."
It has whet his appetite for the season with the Bulls.
"There's a lot of boys turning up to training at the moment so we're going to have a big season I think," he said.
The Narrabri women's side and Pirates also took to the field.
The action kicks-off at 10.10am on Saturday, with a community 7s tournament featuring local junior sides.
Australia, Australia Pacific, NSW and Queensland will then hit the field again.
