Ioan Davies, Mason Grady, Jamie Hill and Teddy Williams have all been ear-marked as stars of the future as rugby returns this weekend.

Previewing this weekend’s Guinness PRO14 fixture against the Scarlets, head coach John Mulvihill was asked to highlight some of the youngsters he has high hopes for.

He revealed a small group of players under 20 are currently training with the senior squad, including Cardiff Blues Under-18s wing Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, whose photo posted on social media received plenty of attention.

And when working his way from full-back to the front-row, Mulvihill identified a number of less familiar names he hopes will follow in the footsteps of the likes of Owen Lane, Ben Thomas, Max Llewellyn and Shane Lewis-Hughes.

Mulvihill said: “If we work through the team there’s Ioan Davies, who is a huge talent and will probably get some game time next week against the Dragons.

“Mason Grady is only 18 and has trained the house down. He hasn’t looked out of place among the internationals we have in our backline so he is someone to look for in the future.

“Jamie Hill was on the bench against Edinburgh but didn’t get on. He’s a young boy coming through, who has played for Ponty during the last number of seasons.

“Then in the forwards just seeing guys like Domachowski and Assiratti put together some back to back form and Teddy Williams. Cory Hill has come in and between him, Seb Davies, Josh Turnbull and Rory Thorton, they have really taken Teddy under their wing and we are looking forward to seeing the best of him.”

Twenty seven of the current senior squad have come through the pathway and will be joined by the next batch of academy graduates for the 2020-21 season.