Tanya Kalounivale is about to realise her life-long dream of playing professional rugby in her native Fiji.
The front-rower will be wearing a Queensland Reds jersey when she does so for the first time on Saturday, but the 27-year-old says she will still be living the dream when she strides out to face Fijian Drua.
"I love my home country, my motherland, and I will always support the Drua," Kalounivale told AAP ahead of their Super Rugby Women's semi-final.
Born in Suva, Kalounivale made a career move to New Zealand and has accrued 29 Test caps and a World Cup with the Black Ferns.
She crossed the Tasman to sign with the Queensland Reds in May, but kept her sights on sharing a rugby field with her fellow countrywomen, even if it meant scrumming down against them.
"It's just part of the process," Kalounivale said.
"For me to play against my own nation ... I'm buzzing out there."
The Reds are still smarting from a 50-17 touch up by the table-topping Drua during the regular season.
After an opening-round loss to defending champions the NSW Waratahs, the Fijians are undefeated, and their winning margins have been impressive.
Kalounivale took plenty away from that tough first encounter with the swashbuckling Pacific side in June.
"In my head, I was thinking, wow, I'm versing the Fijian Drua and this is how - as Fijians - this is how we play," she said.
"It was fast, it was like the off-loads, such a game of flair and excitement they brought.
"It's so exciting ... they're so natural and naturally gifted with that talent."
Kalounivale said settling the score on Saturday will mean leaking fewer errors and keeping the high-flying Drua earth-bound during set pieces.
"We have to just keep pressuring them ... tighten up our connections and continue building," she said.
"The Druas love to scrum high, so we've just got to bring them a bit lower."
That's exactly what the Reds did when they turned a trio of losses around to upset the always-formidable Waratahs away from home and secure their semi-finals berth.
"We just wanted to put some pride back in the jersey ... and did exactly that," Kalounivale said.
"(We) put our bodies on the line, turned up on the day, and applied pressure."
The Waratahs and Western Force will square off in the other semi-final in Perth on Saturday, the game doubling as a curtain-raiser for the Wallabies-Italy Nations Championship fixture.
The second-placed Force will hope to unseat the six-time titleholders from NSW as they bid for a maiden Super Rugby Women's premiership.
Silverware has also proven elusive for the Reds, who have been runners-up on six occasions, losing finals to the Waratahs and the Drua.
The grand final is on July 25.
