WHEN you choose to leave your job and move home to concentrate on being a full-time athlete, there is usually a tangible reward: at least a place in a team, for example, with the chance to play in front of big crowds and contend for trophies. For Stephanie Johnston, there are no such guarantees.

For the past seven months, the Dundonian has been part of the Team GB Olympic Rugby Sevens squad. The dream is to be selected for Rio, but, with 24 women still in that squad and only 12 allowed to be in the final party, it is no more than a dream at present. Not only 19 July, when that final squad is announced, will Johnston know whether her hard work has paid off.

She has already felt the benefit of full-time training, and is fitter and more skilful than ever before. But that has come at a price: her 15s career has been put on hold, and, while the 21 English players in the squad can compete on the global sevens circuit for their own country, she and the two Welsh women are ineligible. They exist in a very physical limbo: training five or more days a week, but always being unsure whether it will come to anything.

Not that Johnston is complaining. Now in her late 20s, she expects that this, realistically, is her one and only opportunity to take part in an Olympic Games - and she aims to do everything in her power to seize it.

“We train in Guildford, so I live about half an hour’s drive from there,” she explained. “I started October last year, initially on a three-month trial, and I’ve continued on with the girls since then. It’s been great so far. It’s starting to get to the point that everybody’s aware that selection is coming - that stage where you want to see what everybody else is doing and see what you can do to try and better that.

“It’s easy to forget how far I’ve come - I have to take a step back and look at where I was going into the programme and where I am now. The changes are massive in terms of fitness, skills, understanding, that sort of thing. It’s only been of benefit to me, and hopefully I can take that back to the girls when I get back to Scotland.

“I’m a vet in Coventry. My boss is brilliant - she’s given me a year’s sabbatical. I start back on 1 September - back to the real world.”

But Rio, too, is becoming more real by the day. Tantalisingly close, in fact. Last week, as the countdown reached 100 days to go, the sevens squad were briefed on what to expect at the Games with a video presentation from some of the country’s most successful Olympians.

“It was really exciting - nervewracking, because selection isn’t out yet and you hear from the Olympians what it was like in the past and you want to be part of it. It’s trying to enjoy it, but not get too excited yet.

“We had Chris Hoy, which was a good one, Steve Redgrave, Rebecca Adlington - people like that, real high-end Team GB athletes just giving their story.”

And the most important piece of advice from those multiple medallists? “It’s just you’re going out there to do a job, There’s going to be so much else going on around you. Rugby’s the first three days, so it’s very much go out there, focus on your job, and then enjoy the environment. To be honest, it’s a good group of girls we’ve got and I don’t think we’ll be easily distracted.”

As one of the full Scotland team’s best players, Johnston was missed during the Six Nations, when a series of improved performances were still not enough to get them a win in the championship. But, while admitting she could have made a difference, she preferred to praise her replacement.

“I guess you could say that,” she said. “You never know. I have complete respect for the girls who are playing out there, especially Chloe Rollie who’s playing full-back at the moment, which was my position for the past few years. She’s a fantastic little player.

“More recently I’ve started to miss [the 15-a-side game], especially during Six Nations time. I went down to Wales to watch the girls, and when you see them lining up for the anthem and you’re not there, it is a bit emotional, I think. So I’m looking forward to getting back into it after the summer.”

The fact that a Scot and two Welshwomen are still in the squad has led some to infer that, if only for political reasons, the final dozen will not be all-English. But Johnson is convinced that the squad will - and should - be selected purely on merit.

“It would be completely unfair on the England girls otherwise. If you’ve got a squad of 12 girls and two of them, very talented athletes, have to miss out just because you have to take a Scottish and a Welsh girl - I think that’s heartbreaking for those two English girls.

“And ultimately as well - yes, I want to be there more than anything else, it would be a dream come true, but you need the 12 best players to be there. And if that is 12 England girls, then it’s 12 England girls.”