That's how Orange Emus' halfback Em McDonald feels without rugby right now.

The 20-year-old was all systems go to get stuck into another season at Endeavour Oval and bring her new-found skills from a pre-season with the Waratahs' Super W side back to her teammates at home.

But in March, all of those aspirations were put on hold after Rugby Australia postponed training and games until the start of May amid the coronavirus crisis that's shut down the vast majority of the nation's sports.

"Motivation at the moment is really hard to keep," McDonald said.

"From training four days a week to playing competitions all weekend to this. I've got all this spare time and I don't really know what to do with it."

But as all successful athletes do, McDonald's been trying to find a way to keep working on her game, even if it means sticking to the basics.

"I'm trying to find the motivation to go for a jog or even work on some simple passing or kicking drills," she said.

"It's hard to keep motivated when you don't know if what you're training for is going to come back."

When asked to address the likelihood of a rugby return in 2020, McDonald didn't beat around the bush.

"In all honesty, I don't think we will get to play at all this year," she said.

"If social distancing is a thing we have to keep in place until a vaccine is created for the virus, it makes it very hard to do group activities such as training."

After being selected for The Brumbies in her maiden Super W campaign at the start of 2019, McDonald was given the call-up to the Waratahs at the beginning of this season and even though she didn't make the final cut, the experience was a unique one that led to her having mixed emotions.

"I absolutely loved everything with the Tahs and the experience I had at that club with that group of girls," she said.

"But, I also missed the girls from Brumbies who were my family away from home."

It's never an easy pill to swallow when your beloved sport is put on hold for an unmeasurable time frame but what makes it more upsetting for McDonald's Emus is the prospective players they had in the works for 2020.

"This year we had a lot of keen young girls who were excited to have a crack at something new," she said.

"Amanda Ferguson and our coach Al are really trying to keep everyone motivated to do some fitness or skill work."

Like many fine things in life, you don't know how much it meant to you until it's no longer around and that theory rings true with McDonald who's missing her mates every day.

"It's crazy... you don't really how much time you spend with people until they aren't there and you can't see them."

Rugby Australia is set to reconsider its stance surrounding the COVID-19 restrictions in the first week of May.

The update will likely give an indication as to when the governing body will aim for the sport return, if it intends to return at all.