There are two conditions Alisha Butchers ponders when it comes to spending her most valuable currency: her time.
Is this going to make me a better rugby player? And will this further women's rugby in general?
If the answer to one of those questions is yes, then it's a green light.
The 24-year-old Wales flanker, like her fellow 22 newly WRU-contracted teammates, knows the value of her time now she is able to dedicate it all to rugby.
The chosen full-time dozen began their new lives of professionalism in January - most of them quitting their full-time jobs and taking pay cuts in doing so - while 11 more players have come on board with part-time retainer contracts.
It means they no longer have to juggle rugby commitments for club and country around full working weeks.
"Because we’ve been given such a great opportunity we have to give everything to it to see if this can take us as a team to the next level," Butchers tells WalesOnline.
The 32-cap Swansea-born back-rower speaks frankly when addressing her future after these first batch of 12-month contracts expire. Talks are set to begin in the summer about renewing them or offering deals to new or more players, ahead of the postponed Rugby World Cup in New Zealand in October and November.
"My sole focus and purpose at the moment is to perform. If I don’t perform, there’s a chance I’m not going to get re-contracted at the end of the day. All of us have to perform to be able to continue this journey."
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Butchers received her life-changing phone call from Wales head coach Ioan Cunningham in December, which led to her putting her job with Active Carmarthenshire on hold to become a full-time rugby player.
"I’d just been for a massage and I came out and I’d had a missed call from Ioan. I was like ‘oh no’. We weren’t expecting it for at least another few weeks.
"I called him back and he said ‘we want to offer you a full-time contract’. I was speechless, and got a little bit emotional as well because it was so unexpected. We have such great players within the team. Because there were only 12 contracts coming out, I was very shocked about it and I was by myself at the time.
"It was only a two or three-minute conversation but it was a dream come true. I phoned my parents to let them know and speak to my family about it, and obviously spoke to Jaz [partner and fellow Wales pro Jasmine Joyce, who she recently got engaged to], we were both super excited and just shocked."
"My employers have been so understanding and flexible, allowing me to take unpaid leave for a year to put everything into this," she explained. "When you're following your dreams, you do what you've got to do.
"It hasn't been easy being a girl playing, especially 15 years ago. There weren't as many opportunities as there are now. The last five or six years playing for Wales, it's been my aspiration and to finally say I'm able to put my all into this and give it 100% of my time is just really exciting."
Three months into the new Wales Women performance programme at the Vale, the team are already seeing gains ahead of their Six Nations kick-off away to Ireland on March 26.
Butchers' situation is a far cry from that of 12 months ago, when she was forced to ask for money to pay for ankle surgery after injuring herself during a Bristol Bears training session. Her club contract did not cover all her medical costs and her personal medical insurance was voided by club payments, so she was left with little option but to publicly appeal for donations to pay for a private operation to fix ankle ligament damage. Within six hours, more than £5,000 was raised. She wanted to use her platform to educate others and highlight the insurance gap in women's rugby.
"We found ourselves in a difficult situation that we both learned from and I hope that other players have learned from as well," she looks back. "I definitely know the Premiership clubs have learned from our experiences so if it can change other girls’ experiences for the better, then I’m glad that it happened and it’s done with now!
"Having a positive attitude and good support system has allowed me to be here today which I wouldn’t have thought possible a year ago. It was a difficult situation to be in, but lessons have been learned from all areas, I’d imagine.
"For myself and all the other girls at Bristol now, all of us are being medically covered. That’s definitely a positive step forward off the back of last season, and I know a couple of other clubs have had conversations with their girls as well, so I think a positive has come from the situation which is what I wanted.
"It was a difficult thing to go through physically and mentally, but I was definitely more determined than ever to get back to full fitness and show the public that supported me what I could do and hopefully be better than when I left."
While professional contracts were a welcome step in the right direction, there is more to being a professional athlete than getting paid: the support system around them is crucial, and it's just what Wales Women are getting at the WRU's National Centre of Excellence.
"Our medical support, we have a great physio in Jo [Perkins], she’s there 24/7 for us. We were getting sport massage in training once or twice a week now, that makes a huge difference to our recovery. We’re seeing huge differences with our recovery and rest time, which if we were working full-time we wouldn’t have that time.
"We’re able to spend more time on-field doing things that you wouldn’t think would make a huge difference, one percenters. We have a lot more time now to get things right.
"Our analysis work with Adam Fuge, he’ll pull us after sessions and have our videos of training up more or less straight away so we can review and learn and then get better for the next session.
"As a programme, we have great S&C, great medical, great analysis, great coaches. Overall, our programme is in such a great place at the moment."
Moving forward, Wales Women will also have one less worry to take into matchdays: menstruating.
Period underwear brand WUKA - Wake Up Kick Ass - has joined forces with the WRU to become the first dedicated partner of its national women’s squad. It will provide Wales Women with a range of sustainable period underwear, and provide support to the rest of the female pathway and community teams via discounts. The announcement makes WUKA the first period pant brand to sponsor a sports team, amid research which claims periods affect up to 80% of women’s exercise schedules due to concerns of leakages, cramps and general wellbeing.
Jo Perkins, Wales Women head physio/head of medical, said: "As part of our performance programme we are looking at many ways in which we can support players so they can reach their full potential on the pitch and that includes tackling aspects of female health. Acknowledging the importance of periods is the first important step. The menstrual cycle should be seen as a real advantage to women, not only as a sign of good health but, by adapting nutrition and training at key times in the cycle, women can make performance gains."
The commercial tie-up is an indicator of how women's sport represents a unique marketing power, while openly discussing what has often been a taboo subject is welcomed.
"What a great opportunity for us as a women’s team to be sponsored by such a great company that really empowers women and provides such a great product for female athletes, especially," Butchers says. "They do pants, leggings, shorts boxers.
"Eighty minutes is a long time sometimes, and to have a product that supports us is only going to mean we feel more confident and comfortable playing."
As for matchday challenges, many Six Nations teams play in white shorts, often causing anxiety and worry for players when they could be wholly focusing on their performance. At grassroots level, such worries can cause girls to stop playing sport altogether.
"A lot of people wouldn’t think that would be a problem but playing in white kit, and white shorts more specifically, can be challenging.
"I know a lot of the girls will be texting HJ [Wales team manager Hannah John] before a game just to make sure she’s got extra shorts for half time or for after the warm-up to change into if you need to. You never know.
"Especially if you’re in front of a big crowd or on TV, it is in the back of your mind. But to have this will take that worry away from us, and it’s really exciting to have the confidence to go into a game and not be having your friends to check the back of your shorts, basically."
Boasting a strong skill-set, Butchers has 32 caps to her name having earned her first during the 2016 Six Nations. She starts in a pre-Six Nations warm-up on Saturday, March 12, against USA Falcons, and will be bidding for a starting berth during the upcoming Women's Six Nations, which is in a standalone window for the second consecutive year. Last year's bottom-place finish without a win proved to be the catalyst for the WRU conducting a review into its performance programme amid mounting public pressure for more support, leading to the professional set-up in place now.
"A lot of us are seeing improvements already which goes to show that in such a short space of time what we can actually do," Butchers added.
"Our expectations have definitely gone up a notch but it’s only been three months, so by the time we go into Six Nations I think there’ll definitely be improvements physically, fitness-wise and skill set."
While Wales Women's camp is a happy one and coaches want the players to enjoy themselves, ultimately performance is the top priority.
"Obviously we want to be happy and have smiles on faces, but the ultimate happiness is performance. If we don’t perform, we’re not happy, so it works both ways.
"Performance is our number one goal and, essentially, winning. We do have to hold ourselves accountable for how we play.
"We have realistic ambitions but we’re more than happy to push ourselves and try and get wins and good performances throughout the Six Nations."
Amid the full-time rugby schedule, players are getting to grips with down-time and recovery being just as important as contact time with their coaches.
For Butchers, who started playing mixed rugby aged six for mini and junior teams at Bynea and Llanelli Wanderers before playing for Carmarthen Quins Girls and Penybanc, it allows time for some wedding planning with partner Joyce.
"Rugby is such a physical and mental challenge, when you come away from that I think it’s really important that you actually switch off from rugby. Because it’s our job now as well, switching off is just as important as the time on-field and the time in the analysis room.
"I’m kind of the wedding planner. We’ve got a date but for both of us our sole focus is rugby at the moment."
- Wales play USA Falcons on Saturday, March 12, at 2pm at Parc y Scarlets in a warm-up - tickets are available www.wru.wales/USA. The Women's Six Nations, which kicks off on March 26 a week after the men's tournament concludes, will be the first time Welsh fans will have a chance to see Wales' progress since historic contracts were introduced for the previously amateur side. Wales are first away to Ireland but tickets for their three home matches at Cardiff Arms Park - against Scotland on April 2, France on April 22 and Italy on April 30 - are on sale and priced at £10 for adults and £5 for children.
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