Sam Warburton believes that Taine Basham is a Test Lion in the making if he continues on his current trajectory.
The former Wales skipper has been an admirer of Basham's for some time, dating back to his involvement with the Wales management during the initial stages of Wayne Pivac's reign.
The abrasive 22-year-old now occupies the No.7 jersey that Warburton owned for many years and the two-time Lions tourist believes Basham has attributes to follow in his footsteps.
Warburton also believes that Basham's form is the reason why Ellis Jenkins missed out on the captaincy role for this campaign, which has been given to Dan Biggar.
Asked to pick out a Welsh player to watch on BT Sport this week, Warburton said: "For Welsh fans, this won't be a surprise. But I presume during the autumn series, when this guy was blooded, a lot of the English, Irish and Scottish might not have seen it.
"Taine Basham is holding that No.7 shirt at the moment. Ellis Jenkins has come back and done a great job and he was captain of Wales.
"But Taine Basham has been so good for the Dragons and he was so good for Wales. We played the big boys - New Zealand and South Africa - and he showed up really well.
"He was one of Wales' best players in every game. He's an extremely powerful ball-carrier and is great over the ball.
"He's just another one off the conveyor belt, the No.7 production line in Wales at the moment.
"I remember thinking about two or three years ago, when I was in the coaching setup with Wales and they were asking me about opensides, that this guy has the potential to be a Test Lion.
"He's got everything. He's not the tallest guy, so he might not be a lineout athlete but he was brilliant in the autumn.
"I think he's the reason why Ellis Jenkins hasn't got the captaincy and Dan Biggar has because he [Basham] is in that lead role to play No.7, which is a massive compliment to him, that they've had to rethink the captaincy.
"Taine Basham is one that all fans should be looking out for. He's a very exciting young player, full of confidence and he could be holding that No.7 shirt for a long time for Wales if he does well again in this Six Nations."
Wales head into the Six Nations Championship with real injury problems.
They are without in excess of 680 Test caps with the likes of skipper Alun Wyn Jones, Ken Owens, Josh Navidi, Justin Tipuric, George North and more.
Warburton feels that expectation levels should reflect that.
"Back home, there is very little expectation. That's not in a bad way because there has been so much publicised about the lack of senior players in the group.
"Dan Biggar is obviously captain, which I think is a great acquisition.
"Not many people thought Wales were going to do well last year but against Ireland there was a red card, they received a couple of red cards for the opposition, which really swung the game.
"Wales were two minutes away from winning the Grand Slam out in France. Ironically, the game they played best in, they lost.
"There isn't that much expectation on Wales, they don't have much pressure. It's a very inexperienced team compared to what was taking the field 12 or 24 months ago.
"France will go in as No.1 favourites but then there's Ireland with their recent autumn success, then England are always going to be there. Scotland were so close last year, they should have beaten Wales.
"The beauty of the Six Nations is that we don't know. We have five teams that could topple each other."
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