The woman who alleges she was raped by Jarryd Hayne didn't want to tell the police or NRL, tried to keep it from her mother and deleted texts before handing her phone to authorities.
But crown prosecutor John Sfinas says this makes her a more reliable source.
"Someone who embellishes, who exaggerates, who misleads, who lies wouldn't say all that," he told the NSW District Court in his closing statement.
"She presented herself warts and all."
Hayne, 35, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of sexual intercourse without consent.
The woman he's accused of performing non-consensual oral and digital intercourse on cannot be identified for legal reasons.
The former Eels player visited the woman's suburban Newcastle home after a friend's bucks party on NRL grand final night in 2018.
It's alleged he pulled the woman's jeans off and performed sex acts on her for about 30 seconds before she began to bleed.
The prosecution says the alleged victim has never tried to present herself in a perfect light and has openly acted in ways that might hurt her case, but this is what makes her a more credible source.
Since 2018, she's been unable to detail exactly how Hayne caused her to bleed, telling the jury, "I've never been able to give a complete answer to what he did, I only know the injuries".
While she deleted texts that showed she had some interest in Hayne, Mr Sfinas said she also kept messages that demonstrated a lack of clarity in consent.
"'I was sort of scared and unsure and I wanted to but I also didn't', that message, you might think, is not good for her, but it's here," he said.
The breadth of her evidence shows she is a strong witness who is trying to tell her story without an agenda, even when there is an incentive to do otherwise, the prosecution argues.
Mr Sfinas also says her ambiguous feelings towards Hayne leading up to the alleged crime aren't necessarily as important.
"Consent is a decision not given two weeks before or even two minutes before. A person consents to sexual intercourse if they freely and voluntarily agree," he said.
"The moment of freely and voluntarily consenting was when the accused returned from speaking to the taxi driver whose existence was unknown to her until there was a beep or knock at the door."
The jury heard seeing the taxi preparing to drive Hayne to Sydney was a defining moment for the woman.
"There was no way in hell I was going to touch him," she told the court.
"I was angry, I was hurt, I was sad.
"In my mind I thought this could one day turn into something, so when I worked out he only wanted to come over for that - I felt like crap, I felt angry."
The trial before Judge Graham Turnbull continues.
To see more stories and read today's paper download the Newcastle Herald news app here.
