Sam Warbuton metaphorically signed up for the Mat Protheroe fan club while watching the Ospreys’ Heineken Champions Cup encounter with Sale Sharks.
In front of Wales head coach Wayne Pivac, Protheroe came up with a startling personal display, making 173 metres with ball in hand while beating eight defenders. Every time he set sail in open field, the uncapped back-three man from Swansea sent tremors through the opposition defence.
His work meant ex-Wales and Lions captain Warburton was impressed.
At one point in the televised game, a graphic popped up on screen revealing the 141 metres that Protheroe had made until then.
Speaking while on BT Sport punditry duties, Warburton said: "That’s immense. He’s been by far the Ospreys’ best attacking weapon. He’s been brilliant. That’s an incredible statistic. It really is.”
It isn't just about pace with Protheroe, with his ability to move quickly accompanied by a buccaneering sense of adventure.
When he fields the ball, his first instinct isn’t to lump it back at opponents. It is to counter-attack, and counter-attack by either doing would-be defenders in the fast lane on the outside or stepping inside — almost never trying to run through them.
He isn’t the biggest but there are not many in the Welsh game who can match him for sheer daredevilry.
While hearts may sometimes be in mouths in the Swansea.com Stadium when he takes off from deep, he is a player who is comfortable operating on the edge and more often than not makes swathes of ground for his side.
He offers the Ospreys a priceless cutting edge.
They may not have a surfeit of overly creative players, but in Protheroe they have an individual with the ability to fashion something out of nothing.
Quite what Pivac thought of him against Sale isn’t documented.
But Warburton knows a good player and he was impressed by what he saw.
So would have been pretty much every spectator present at the stadium in Swansea.
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