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The Wallabies are set to unleashed their caged bull, with wildman Sean McMahon ready to unleash six weeks of pent-up anger on France this weekend.
The bruising back-rower has been out of action since injuring his ankle against the Springboks in Pretoria at the start of October – and the weeks of rehab and training on his own has left the 22-year-old champing at the bit.
“Training on your own sucks, really bad. Rehab’s boring, you keep running in a straight line,” said the forthright McMahon on Monday.
Though still fresh in his international career, with 12 Tests, McMahon’s no-holds-barred approach at training has led to him being picked on two Spring Tours as well as last year’s World Cup.
Getting back to that aggressive mindset in the past week helped convince McMahon – and the coaching staff – he’s ready to go.
With Cheika expected to make changes to his match-day 23 to take on France in Paris on Saturday (Sunday morning AEDT), McMahon looms as a likely option to return and give star flankers David Pocock and Michael Hooper a rest.
“Going hard at training, I did that last week and really put the ankle to the test and I came out the other end on top,” McMahon said.
“Going to get into it again this week and if the opportunity over the weekend comes I’ll be looking forward to that.”
Now fit and firing, McMahon wants to put pressure onto Australia’s newly formed backrow of Pocock, Hooper and Lopeti Timani.
But with Pocock taking a sabbatical from the Wallabies next year, opportunities will present themselves in the near future regardless.
“It’s always been a hotly contested spot so really it’s just doing what I do and training as hard as I can at training,” McMahon said.
“If I get the opportunity to break that then I have to prove that it’s my worth and I deserve to be out there because it’s a great back-row at the moment.
“Timani is playing exceptionally well and it’s going to be a tough place to crack back into that back-row now.”
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.