Rugby World Cup 2015: Sean McMahon keeping Wallabies squad honest with wild dog attitude

BEING stuck behind one superstar would be bad, but having two in your position would make most people despondent. But Sean McMahon isn’t most people.

The Australian rugby union team train at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA. Back rower Sean McMahon poses in front of Notre Dame's 'Word of Life' mural, better known as Touchdown Jesus.

​BEING stuck behind one superstar would be bad enough, but having two in your position would be enough to make most people despondent.

Sean McMahon isn’t most people. Ask any of the Wallabies, who ​​routinely avoid him at training to stay healthy.

McMahon may be in a queue behind David Pocock and Michael Hooper but in a sign of why Michael Cheika rearranged a whole World Cup squad just to get the aggressive young flanker on the plane, it doesn’t get him down in the slightest.

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“I didn’t come over here to hold a pad,” McMahon said.

“I’m here to do whatever I can for this team, if that’s me getting any opportunity down the track … this is a long tournament and you never know what is going to happen. I’m going to give it everything I can.

“Being behind such great players like Hoops and Poey, you’ve got to step up and at the moment my job there is on the training paddock.”

McMahon, 21, has quickly earned a reputation as a h​ealth and safety issue​ o​n​​ the Wallabies training field and ​has been credited by teammates and Cheika as setting a hard-edged standard for all to follow.

McMahon makes no excuses for his full-tilt attitude, and said so far no senior player had taken issue.

“By me doing what I do at training, I think it’s pushing them to continue to perform. I hope that’s what it’s doing anyway. No one has said anything and I think they all get around it,” McMahon said.

“If I get a good hit on or run hard, they do the same thing back. It’s only expected, that’s footy.

“Being able to learn from players such as Hooper and Poey as a young player, it’s only going to develop me for further games.”

Standing at ​just ​1.86m, McMahon ​is surplus to requirements for the Wallabies’ top side when Pocock and Hooper are paired up and Cheika requires line out options elsewhere in the backrow and on the bench.

But the Melbourne Rebels forward will start at no. 7 in the Wallabies second World Cup game against Uruguay on Sunday night (AEST), and he’ll be doing all he can to win for Australia and impress Cheika.

“I’ll be getting a run against Uruguay and I’ll do what I do every game, that’s going out there and giving it 110 per cent,” he said.

McMahon debuted at no. 6 for the Wallabies last year, and along with his wild dog attitude it’s back row versatility that would seem his best chance to play more Tests.

He has been upskilling in several positions​, including lineout work and back-of-scrum touch. ​

“It’s always said that I’m not tall enough to be a No. 6, but it’s little skills I can develop. Maybe it’s speed across the ground that will help me in a lineout or learning the role at No. 8 so if there’s an opportunity or they need me in the back row then I’ll be able to jump in there,” he said..

McMahon was a former sevens star who won a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games last year but he decided to turn down the opportunity at for an Olympic gold, focus on 15-a-side and aim for the World Cup.

“The​ ​World Cup is the pinnacle. I’d choose this any day,” he said.

“All I’m focusing on is 15’s. I’m not thinking about sevens at all.

​”​If they come down the track later on that’s something to think about then, but all I’m thinking about is 15’s. I don’t regret it, that decision that I made. ​”​

Originally published as Rugby World Cup 2015: Sean McMahon keeping Wallabies squad honest with wild dog attitude