The two uncapped props who have caught Thomas du Toit's eye while in England

Bath’s departing tighthead prop, Springbok Thomas du Toit, has backed his team-mate Billy Sela to be “phenomenal in the future,” adding “he’s everything I would love to see in a younger player.”

The 31-year-old is set to rejoin the Sharks at the end of the season after three years in the Gallagher PREM with Bath, where he has established himself as a fan favourite.

Having played well over 50 times in blue, black and white, the 32-cap Springbok has come up against the best English rugby, and indeed European rugby, has to offer, but he has singled out Gloucester’s Afo Fasogbon and Bath team-mate Sela, both 21, as the two players who have caught his eye.

Joining The Good, the Bad, the Rugby podcast this week, the Springbok was asked to single out some props, and chose to pick the uncapped England hopefuls who, like du Toit, operate as tightheads.

“Obviously, Afo is doing unbelievably well and purely based on a consistency basis, he’s playing week in and week out and putting in some serious minutes,” du Toit said. “That guy will play 250 or 300 games for Gloucester if he decides to stay and his body keeps up, and it definitely looks like it’s going to.

Fixture

Gallagher Premiership

Bath

07:00

16 May 26

Newcastle

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“I’m very biased, but I think Billy Sela is amazing. He’s everything I would love to see in a younger player. Unbelievable work rate, unbelievable work ethic, he’s got all the talent in the world and he’s such a nice guy. He’s a great guy to be around and he’s a team man.”

With du Toit’s Bath team-mate Will Stuart and Sale Sharks tighthead Asher Opoku-Fordjour both unavailable for the Guinness Six Nations this year, many tipped either Fasogbon or Sela to get the call from Steve Borthwick.

Northampton Saints’ Trevor Davison got the nod instead from Borthwick, though the South Africa said he “would have loved to see Billy play.” He did, however, give some words of advice to Borthwick as to how he should use the young props.

“From what I understand, a couple of the guys have been in camp, which I think was good ‘blooding’ for them if you want to use that term. I think it would have been great to see a couple of the guys play. I find it very difficult because, practically, do you start them or do you bench them? If your starter, who you believe is going to play 60-odd minutes, goes off in the first 10, then you’ve thrown this youngster into a very deep end. If he doesn’t perform well, you’ve got this perception about him that’s completely skewed.

“Whereas I would always advocate for these guys starting and if it doesn’t go well after 20 minutes, say: ‘Listen, come off, we’ve got someone on the bench who has done it before and he’ll finish the job for us.’ Again, biased, but I would have loved to see Billy play. But he is so young and he is going to be phenomenal in the future. The way he’s tracking, patience could be the best thing.”