Four red cards in four tournaments, plus several more suspensions, Australia's women's sevens team have started to feel the heat of the intense scrutiny on head-on-head collisions, and it's proving costly.
Kicking off the World Rugby sevens series in dominant fashion with two gold medal wins at Dubai and Cape Town, the Aussie women have since slipped, finishing second in Perth, where they fell to Ireland in the final, and the Vancouver leg where they failed to medal at all.
While it may not be panic stations yet for Aussie women's sevens coach Tim Walsh, tackle accuracy has becoming an increasingly key as the team seeks to break some bad habits ahead of the Olympics.
"To mitigate any of that [head-on-head collisions], you've just got to tuck lower and be technically better," Walsh told ESPN ahead of the weekend's tournament in Los Angeles.
"To break any habit takes a little bit of time and when you're trying to concentrate so much on something, then the other parts of the game probably suffer, because generally you want to get into a flow where you're not thinking you're just doing.
"It is paying its toll on the team because of minutes played, and the cohesion, they're all little curveballs which we're enjoying having to deal with, but prefer that we didn't, but we have to, and we will. Hopefully those cards and suspensions will slowly simmer down to nothing.
"We have to be a lot smarter and technically better."
The most efficient defensive side on the circuit, the Aussies are also one of the most carded with Alyssia Lefau-Fakaosilea, and sisters Teagan and Maddison Levi, all receiving red cards in the opening four tournaments of the series, while Teagan and Maddi Ashby have also received an additional two suspensions without cards. All up, Australia has received a huge 21 games worth of bans.
Both Levi sisters were late takers to the game, originally playing for the Gold Coast Suns in the AFLW before switching to rugby sevens, but Walsh says it's no excuse.
"I think any transitional athlete is going to have to take time to adapt and [cut] certain habits. The first thing you're taught at rugby training is where to put your shoulder and then you can't run without legs, so that's obviously the easiest way to stop someone is to be able to stop them from running so you tackle their legs.
"It isn't a hard thing, it's just a habit, and then a reaction thing that we just have to do a little bit more work on.
"If you have any transitional athlete come in, they're going to have to adapt in some way, but you also see Teagan and Maddi putting on absolute textbook tackles as well that are just bone crunching and beautiful to watch.
"It's always a challenge, but I think the game in its nature is physical, it's an aggressive, barbaric game that you want that intent, you want that desire to run through people, to tackle people, to stop them from getting over your advantage line, so you know things are going to happen.
"But again, technically, we just have to take it out of the referees' hands and give them a clear picture on the right technique on making a tackle."
Walsh also defended his team, arguing the inconsistency of the dangerous tackle law which sees players punished for the outcome instead of the technique behind it.
"What's really hard to grapple with as a coach and as a player is that you can do exactly the same action and the two heads just slightly miss and it's play on and the other one you get a red card and six games, sometimes mitigated to four or three," Walsh told ESPN.
"They're exactly the same technical tackle it's just something that one gets red carded and six games mitigated to three, and one gets nothing. Play on. That's where the inconsistency of it is.
"It's technical, you shouldn't do it, but if you don't hit it's play on, if you do, then it's a massive disadvantage to your team. We don't want that to be the case, we don't want it to be luck, we need it to be technically better, so there isn't any luck."
Halfway through the SVNS season and with the Olympics just months away, Walsh acknowledges a red card or a suspension could be the difference between a gold medal and failing to reach the podium at all, but he's not panicking and believes the team can change their habits and continue dominating the circuit as the No. 1 ranked team.
"Definitely [could cost Australia a medal], I think that was identified [early]," Walsh said. "You look at it when you're planning and looking at what are some de-railers and if you get a yellow card in a game of sevens, the average points deficit you'll have is 10. And then if you're red carded, that could be obviously more and then you lose players for games.
"It's a huge de-railer and I think every team is fully aware of that and need to have a plan for it, but also hoping not to have to implement a plan by being smarter around the rules of the game.
"No [we're not panicking], obviously, little things pop up here and there that we need to make little adjustments to, but I think we hit the season where we wanted to be we targeted Dubai and then we managed to roll on to Cape Town and then keep going. We're halfway through the season and then have Madrid and then the Olympics, so we're very confident and trusting the process of where the team is at."