Rewind the clock just a few months and Teddy Leatherbarrow was representing Loughborough University in the BUCS Super League, but on Saturday he will go head-to-head with former World Player of the Year Josh van der Flier in Dublin.
Leatherbarrow's rise from university rugby to a starting player for the Scarlets in the United Rugby Championship has been rapid. This is the 23-year-old's second stab at professional rugby having originally been in the Sale Sharks system, while also representing Scotland at U20s level.
But after being named in the BUCS Super League team of the season he was picked up by the Scarlets and will line up in the number seven jersey against Leinster at the RDS tomorrow. "It's strange to think I was probably watching Josh van der Flier last year and thinking 'wow. what a player'," he said.
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"To have the chance to come up against him this weekend is something I'll try to take with two hands and relish the opportunity. It doesn't come around every week and I think a lot of the boys are in a similar position.
"We want to go and Test ourselves against some of the best players in the world."
Leatherbarrow was born in Macclesfield but qualifies for Wales courtesy of his mother, while his father is Scottish. With all four Welsh sides expected to operate on playing budgets of £4.5m from next season it is likely they will look towards the BUCS Super League as a means of signing potential stars of the future, with Leatherbarrow's former Loughborough team-mate Charlie Titcombe also at the Scarlets.
Leatherbarrow is an example of someone who didn't make it at first but thanks to the university programme has developed into a player able to compete in professional rugby. "I was at Sale since I was 14. I did two years at the senior academy there, and left for Loughborough uni," he said. "I wasn't sure whether I wanted to do professional rugby again but then that third year came and the thought of a graduate job wasn't quite for me.
"This opportunity arose and it was one I couldn't turn down. I've played a lot of adult leagues since I've left school in National One, National Two, the Welsh Premiership and BUCS. It's completely different.
"I would say it's more comparable with the URC in terms of the ball is moving a lot. There's a lot of good, young players in there with lads who are playing in Welsh academies like here at the Scarlets, and boys in English academies who go to uni to combine that education with rugby.
"The standard is really high and there's lots of funding in the universities which means you get a great level of coaching. I can only speak for Loughborough but there's massive depth there.
"We used to have support in psychology, nutritionists and S&C. It was almost like being in a professional environment but you get your education at the same time. I can't speak highly enough of the BUCS Super Rugby programme."
The BUCS Super League has become a well-trodden path for players looking to make it as professional players. The likes of England international Alex Dombrandt and Wales back-rower Christ Tshiunza have both been nurtured by the university programme, while France star Thibaud Flament also played for Loughborough. "If you looked at who had been there before us in the BUCS league there was Dan Kelly and Freddie Steward who were just a couple of years before myself," said Leatherbarrow.
"Those are the boys you look up to. Tom Pearson (Northampton Saints) was at Cardiff Met and you see him tearing it up every week. It's strange when we played the Dragons and Cardiff in pre-season, you are bumping into boys you were playing against when they were playing for Cardiff Met and Cardiff Uni.
"There's boys everywhere from the BUCS league. It really is a stepping stone and a trampoline onto bigger and better things." Read my weekly column in our rugby newsletter
Arguably the biggest threat facing the professional sides in Wales is promising young players moving across the bridge for educational purposes to join the academies of English Premiership clubs. To their credit the Welsh sides have worked with the university system, with many players contracted to the Scarlets or Ospreys academies while attending universities in England.
What the BUCS system also does is act as a net which catches those who have been axed by the academy systems ensuring there is room for late developers in the professional game. "I think you only have to look at recent times with all those clubs going under," said Leatherbarrow.
"The amount of boys Loughborough have gained from that is unbelievable and there's definitely boys maybe who are late developers. I think for forwards especially it gives you another three years of being in the gym, working and developing physically so you can come into these environments and actually challenge.
"I know myself personally at 18 I wasn't ready as a forward to be playing men's rugby. I wasn't in the right physical condition. Looking at when I was 18 to now I've put on nearly 15kg.
"I feel like I'm now able to make more of an impact when it comes to that top level of men's rugby." In the absence of Josh Macleod and Dan Davis due to injury, Leatherbarrow has started the previous three games on the bounce for the Scarlets.
The industrious openside has done a lot of the unseen work, tackling himself to a standstill and competing hard at the breakdown. And apart for a late yellow card in the victory over Cardiff the economics graduate has more than held his own.
"I think I was knackered and I forgot there was a TMO!," joked Leatherbarrow when asked about his yellow against Cardiff for taking out a player off the ball. "You get away with those things in the BUCS rugby and the Welsh Prem.
"I was absolutely blowing out of my hoot and chasing and I just stepped in front of him. He made a bit of a meal of it but fair play to him, it worked. It was then a bit of squeaky bum time but it was a case of head in hands and praying.
"I took it and learnt my lesson. That's probably the difference you find when you get into those last 20 minutes, the players who come off the bench are top level again so you are under pressure and fatigued.
"It's about being mentally aware and mentally switched on. You have to have that for the full 80 minutes. If you lapse in concentration then people take advantage of it, as they did. I learnt from it and it won't happen again.
"With my age I was hoping I'd come in, make an impact and be involved. The way it's fallen I've had a couple of appearances to start, and to play against the Barbarians was definitely my ambition but whether I was expecting it to happen so soon I'm not quite sure.
"I'm just trying to take it in my stride and get on with it." And there will undoubtedly be more graduates of the BUCS Super League following in Leatherbarrow's footsteps over the coming seasons.
