Willison - who is the cousin of former Blues and Waikato and current Worcester Warriors midfielder Jackson Willison - has had an interesting last 12 months of rugby.
This time last year she was starring for the Hamilton Girls' High School sevens, who won the famed Condors Sevens in fine style. She made the tournament team, along with Terina Te Tamaki, who has already played for New Zealand.
"We had a good coaching staff for that team, and the Condors was where we got exposure with the TV cameras," she says.
It was off to Japan mid-year, where she spent three months playing sevens for the Hokkaido Barbarians, immersing herself in a culture she grew to love. Upon her return to New Zealand, she was thrust straight into Farah Palmer Cup action with Waikato, for whom she played in 2015 while still at school.
A first five in 15s, Willison has a wide range of playmaking skills which have caught the eye of new Black Ferns Sevens head coach Allan Bunting.
"She's been in our programme before, when she was still at school. We then let her go away so she wouldn't have all the pressures of professional rugby. She's shown up again in the playmaker role, so she has to be able to kick, pass, defend well, throw into the lineout and put the ball into the scrum," says Bunting. "If your playmaker has a good game, you usually win, so she's got an important skillset and is a talent for us. She's got a lot of potential if she wants it."
On that basis, expect Willison to see some game time in some of the Dubai pool games against Ireland, Fiji and France, as a back-up to usual playmaker Kelly Brazier, who will join the squad in Dubai from her Black Ferns tour.
As for Willison, this is just the first step on the path to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
