Between a hat-trick against French giants and a call-up for Wales, it has been a remarkable week for Dragons back-rower Taine Basham.

Now one of his recent coaches is tipping him to become a global star – not bad for a youngster who only turned 20 three weeks ago.

On the Under the Sticks podcast, former Dragons coach Bernard Jackman, who gave Basham his first chance as a professional, is in no doubt as the potential of his former charge.

He said: “Basham, I don’t want to build him up too much, but he has the ability to be a world star. He did things at training that a lot of other people can’t do. He’s got a great attitude.

“What we did with him was we blooded him at 17 and we made a plan as what can we do as a special case with this guy to try to help him become the best player he can be? Part of that was sitting down with the WRU head of performance and asking if he would benefit from a bloc of Sevens rugby? Does he need to play Under-20s Six Nations, would it be better for him to do a conditioning bloc?

“We built up a season for him where he was targeting certain games for the Dragons, there was a period of S&C there was a period of Sevens going away.

“I think he went to Cape Town, maybe Hong Kong. His skillset is very well-suited to Sevens. He was one who it would be easy to play him every week but that’s not what was best for him. We felt that experience playing Sevens, experience with the 20s when he had a leadership role, and experience playing for us, training with us (would help).”

Basham’s versatility has come in handy this season, making the step up while international colleagues Aaron Wainwright and Ross Moriarty were helping Wales to a World Cup semi-final berth.

The pair both started in the last-four defeat to South Africa, but it was the third member of that back-row trio, Justin Tipuric, who most resembles Basham according to Jackman.

He explained: “Sometimes the temptation when you don’t have a lot of talent is to overplay him. But we tried to build a personal development plan for him to come through. Now with Moriarty and Wainwright at the World Cup, that first bloc of Guinness PRO14 games was an opportunity for him to come in.

“He’s gifted, he can play six, seven or eight, he’s got unbelievable footwork, great pace, he’s very like Tipuric. He’s that kind of player.

“If you need him to play 13 during a game because of injuries, he could go in there and wouldn’t let you down. He’s a good kid as well, he’s really switched on, he comes from a good family and I’m really excited to see him continue to develop.”

That is high praise for Basham, but if his rapid rise is anything to go by, it is fully justified.

Time will tell whether Jackman is right on the potential of the latest promising Welsh back-rower.