WALES boss Wayne Pivac believes dynamic Dragons flanker Taine Basham can thrive on the Test stage thanks to a pair of legends helping him with the dark arts.

The 21-year-old from Talywain has been named in the squad for the autumn internationals and is likely to feature in the opener against New Zealand on Saturday, October 30.

Basham has impressed with his explosive displays for the Dragons and got his first call-up from Pivac after scoring a hat-trick against Castres in 2019.

He had to wait until last summer to win his first cap off the bench against Canada, playing alongside Rodney Parade teammate Aaron Wainwright and Ross Moriarty, and made two more outings against Argentina.

Wales have a huge step up in quality when facing the All Blacks and South Africa in the autumn along with Fiji and Australia, but Basham has been backed to make an impression.

He showed his qualities with a man of the match display against Connacht on Saturday and Pivac believes work with a pair of former Wales captains, complementing the efforts of Dragons defence coach Simon Cross, is starting to pay off.

South Wales Argus: IMPACT: Taine Basham scored two tries on Test debut against CanadaIMPACT: Taine Basham scored two tries on Test debut against Canada

"Taine has a great skill set with power and pace," he said. "He can play in the wide channels and brings X-factor to the 7 jersey, and he is slowly developing the dark art of the breakdown.

"It started off with Sam Warburton doing work with him and Gethin Jenkins of late has been doing that work with him.

"He is improving in that area, we have invested time in him because we believe he has the power output, the speed and the skill set.

"The dark arts can improve over time and we have to look at the amount of turnovers you get at international level now.

"Look at boys who are more jackal experts and they get one or two a game at club level, which probably translates to not a lot at international level.

"At the moment we think he is a more rounded player and he has been in a couple of campaigns now. He has learnt from mistakes and is turning the corner with discipline and fitness levels, which was exposed in the summer series."

South Wales Argus: IMPRESSIVE: Leicester's Tommy ReffellIMPRESSIVE: Leicester's Tommy Reffell

Wales have suffered a number of injury blows in the back row but Pivac still goes without the uncapped duo of Tommy Reffell and Jac Morgan, who have been knocking on the door with their displays for Leicester and the Ospreys respectively.

"The question is the type of game that we want to play and the game that they are playing at their clubs," said the Wales boss.

"Some clubs play a similar style to what we do, some play a totally different style and the players don't get to work on the areas of their game which are important to us.

"It's understanding there is a style of game that we want to play and positional requirements within that. You have to have a skill set to fulfil that role along with fitness levels to play at this level, with repeatability and top-end gas.

"It's our job to pick the guys we think tick the majority of the boxes for the way we want to play the game and can do the role we are after right here and right now. I have spoken to Tommy, so he knows he is on the radar as is Jac Morgan."