Phillips, who now plays for Bayonne, will be unavailable for the RBS 6 Nations Grand Slam champions’ clash with Australia on December 1 because it falls outside the IRB window for international friendlies, giving 23-year-old Webb the perfect opportunity to make the step up to the first team.

With the new campaign up and running Webb knows his best chance of adding to his three international caps will be to make himself a regular starter at Ospreys.

After featuring in Wales’ final tour game down under in August the rising star is relishing the chance to face Wallabies scrum-half Will Genia again.

“I want to try and nail down the jersey at the Ospreys first, but one of my aims is to push for the autumn internationals,” said Webb, who made his debut during last year’s RBS 6 Nations.

“It was a great experience for me to be out in Australia. Obviously I didn’t really feel like I had long enough to get in the full swing of things.”