Australia's Brett Metcalfe on his way to a podium for Team Australia at the MXoN in France.

South Australian Brett Metcalfe has hailed Team Australia’s performance at the 65th FIM Motocross of Nations in France, relieved to live up to the team’s podium potential.

Australia has been struck with bad luck in recent MXoN events despite fielding world class teams, however a third place overall at St. Jean d’Angely in France was the ultimate reward on Sunday behind Team USA and France.

“We came here Friday for the press conference and it almost felt like we were the laughing stock, like ‘here comes Team Australia again, a great team but they’ll probably take seventh again like every year’,” Metcalfe reflected.

“To finally get that out of the way and get on the podium is awesome for Australian motocross.”

Metcalfe finished seventh in the Open and MX2 moto before capping off his weekend with 10th in the MX1 and Open affair, a consistent performance that attributed to the team’s final result.