The ACT Brumbies lock should have a Test cap to his name. Injury was all that kept the 33-year-old from making his long-awaited Wallabies debut against France last year.

Wind the clock forward and Neville has managed just one Super Rugby game this year due to a shoulder injury, but he is determined to make up for lost time in search of a Test debut against a touring English side in July.

Neville is targeting the Otago Highlanders in Super Round for a comeback from a shoulder issue - "the best guess is nerve damage" - which has kept him sidelined since round one.

And make no mistake about it, Neville is in Dave Rennie's sights. He was in Wallabies camp this month despite playing just one game this year, and the race for lock spots is wide open with six contenders joining that Gold Coast camp.

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"It would mean a lot, there's been a lot of work going into it over a long period of time. It would be good to get that validation and achieve your dreams," Neville said.

"I haven't really had the up to date conversation other than knowing I would have played the France series had I not been injured last year. I don't really like to dwell on the 'what ifs' too much, I just want to look forward and know that if I do the work, hopefully I get a shot again.

"We've just started dipping our toes in some technical things [before facing England]. It's good to be a part of that.

"Being a lock, [they want] maximum amount of brutality in all contact areas. They want to see increased skill from pretty much everyone so that includes me. They want to see the maul effectiveness we have at the Brumbies and they want us to take that to Test level as well."

Among the locks hunting for a call-up to face England are Neville's Brumbies teammates Darcy Swain and Nick Frost. Swain burst onto the international scene last year while Frost has been the form lock in Australian rugby this year as he ponders a backflip on a deal to move to Japan.

All three - as well as emerging Brumbies lock Tom Hooper - are poised to play key roles for a Brumbies outfit bracing for its toughest run of the Super Rugby Pacific season.

The Highlanders clash in Melbourne marks the start of trans-Tasman rugby for Dan McKellar's side, who concede they will have to find another gear if they are to remain at the top end of the table having entered the bye round four points clear in first place.

Should Neville earn the nod to play the Highlanders, it will mark his first game in more than two months.

But he is relishing the challenge ahead, which is why as he trudges off the training paddock at Brumbies headquarters, he simply smiles and says "another week closer".

"Once you can sense it's coming closer, you can feel a bit more buzz," Neville said.

"I was hoping to be back before the bye when I first looked at it. This sort of happened to me two years ago when I came back from a broken ankle. I played the first game after the bye which was good, because I had a full two weeks to make sure I was ready to go and got into it.

"We're 7-1 against our side of the Tasman really but we know there are some sterner tests coming. At the same time, there's a lot of areas of our game to improve on as well. If we can improve those, we should be a much better team and take the fight to the Kiwi teams.

"Us and other Australian teams underperformed quite a bit last year. It was quite a step down from where we even left the normal Super Rugby competition before COVID. It was probably a bit disappointing from all the teams. Whatever those reasons were, hopefully we've moved past that and we're ready to be competitive again."

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