Bath Rugby forwards guru Neal Hatley believes Nathan Catt is in line to be selected for England's tour of New Zealand.
England will take on the world champions in a three-Test series immediately after the English domestic season ends, with Red Rose boss Stuart Lancaster having indicated that he will take an extended squad of 40.
And Hatley is backing Catt to be on the flight to Auckland following a run of form for Bath that has seen the 26-year- old loosehead selected ahead of Wales international Paul James of late.
"Nathan Catt has been absolutely outstanding. I'm pretty sure that come New Zealand his name will come into the reckoning," said Hatley, himself a former prop.
"He's playing more regularly and he's getting better and better.
"His earned his starting spot above Paul James and he's produced the goods week after week, whether he's starting or coming off the bench.
"England are quite blessed at loosehead with the likes of Corbisiero, Marler, Mako Vunipola and Matt Mullan, but I think Catty is easily as good as those blokes."
Catt has been at Bath for a decade, having joined the club straight from school at 16.
From an early age, he was touted as an England prospect by senior figures within the RFU but is yet to receive his first full cap.
"Nathan probably stagnated a little bit," explained Hatley.
"He came out of the under-20s and he and Corbisiero were the starting props.
"For me, he had a period of two or three years where he probably didn't play as much as he should've done. But he's doing that now, he's playing regularly.
"You need to learn by playing, you can't learn by training. That's what we provided him with towards the end of last year and this year, and we're seeing the benefits of that now."
