LIKE many young Welshmen with dreams of playing rugby for their country, Eli Walker's boyhood hero was Shane Williams.

Walker looked up to Williams — if perhaps not in physical terms — as the wing he most wanted to emulate and, after progressing through the youth ranks with his home town club Gorseinon and then with the Ospreys, the 19-year-old has realised a long and burning ambition to play alongside Wales's record try-scorer.

But now, rather than treating Williams as an idol, Walker sees the try machine as a rival for a regional starting place on the wing.

Walker's rise comes at an opportune time for the former Celtic champions, with Williams having announced he will be ending his playing career in the summer.

Walker seems to be among the front-runners to succeed Williams, and the Ospreys' coaches have suggested that Walker is already pushing the veteran hard for a regular berth, which was evident when the teenager was picked ahead of his hero for last month's Heineken Cup defeat to Biarritz.

It may not have been the most serene introduction to European rugby for Walker, who endured a tough afternoon as his side lost 36-5, but the burgeoning wing has shown ample evidence of his prodigious talents this term.

Blessed with searing pace, Walker impressed in the Ospreys' LV= Cup clashes earlier this season and was rewarded with league starts against Glasgow and then for a local derby with the Scarlets.

Walker will be back in LV= Cup action against Worcester tomorrow and, having soaked up some Williams wisdom at the Ospreys' Llandarcy headquarters, the Gorseinon man is hoping to put those tips into practice at Sixways.

"Shane's the magic man. I always used to watch him on TV for Wales and the Ospreys," Walker says.

"You've got to learn from players like that and Tommy Bowe.

''They're great to be around.

"It's been awesome. You're on the training pitch and you always want to learn.

"It's nice when they pull you to one side and give you tips on running lines and tell you to back yourself at certain points in the game.

"The main thing Shane says is just to back myself.

"He knows there are a lot of youngsters coming through, and I've got the ability but maybe I'm a bit shyer than others so Shane has told me to back myself.

"They were idols when I was young, but now they are rivals trying to get in the same position as me.

"It is quite a strange experience.

"Speaking to the coaches, they said I have been playing on merit.

"I've just got to keep training hard and trying to get that starting place."

As he reflects on training and playing alongside Williams, Walker smiles to himself.

Modest and softly spoken, the 19-year-old still finds it a little surreal to be a team-mate and a peer for Williams.

But that does not mask his raw competitive streak.

As he says, Walker is there on merit and, even when it comes to sprint training at Llandarcy, he is eager to get one over his great idol.

"Speed is one of my strengths. I did the 100 metres in 10.8 seconds two years ago," Walker says.

"I did a bit of athletics at school, but I didn't go on to do competitions with the Swansea Harriers because I wanted to concentrate on rugby.

"We also do 40m sprints in training. I did that in 4.72 seconds the other day.

"It's between me, Tom Prydie and Kristian Phillips. We're all around that mark.

"Shane's 10m time is absolutely bombing, but I think it tails off a bit for 40m. Back in the day he must have been really rapid."

Ultimately, Walker would like to follow Williams's footsteps and eventually pull on the Welsh red jersey.

But, as this is his first season of sustained exposure to first-team regional rugby, the 6ft flyer is happy to bide his time.

"Playing for Wales is the big picture," adds Walker, who has played for Wales's Under-16, Under-18 and Under-20 sides.

"Seeing Ashley Beck and others coming through, you need a string of regional starts before you can get in contention for that Welsh jersey.

"My main focus is playing for the Ospreys first, and then that would be a bonus.

"Ashley's first game for the region came when he was 17, so it's not as if he's broken through this year.

"He has played a lot of regional games, and that's stood him in good stead for his honours with Wales.

"It's not a big rush for me to get picked for Wales yet.

"I just want to get my head down and what comes will come."

For the time being, Walker's focus is firmly on tomorrow's LV= Cup encounter against Worcester.

The Ospreys cannot qualify for the knockout stages of the competition, though the former Celtic champions had from the outset targeted the tournament as an opportunity to develop their younger players.

Worcester are also out of the reckoning for the next round, though their coach Richard Hill has indicated the Warriors will be fielding a full-strength side.

A first-choice English Premiership team will be nothing new for the fledgling Ospreys, though, as they have already come up against the best of Exeter and Northampton.

And as far as Walker is concerned, the stronger the opposition, the better the experience will be for him and his youthful colleagues.

"We've been bringing in a mixture of youngsters and players coming back for the restart of the RaboDirect Pro12," he says.

"We're missing a few with international duty, so it's about game time for a lot of the guys and experience for the younger ones.

"It's made for the youngsters to come through. The likes of Ashley Beck, Rhys Webb and Justin Tipuric have gone through the LV and then gone on to national duty.

"It's been a good stepping block.

"It's been great for me this season. It started out in the LV games, first against Exeter and then Northampton where I proved myself by playing quite well.

"Luckily enough, I got picked for the big regional derby against the Scarlets.

"Northampton put their strongest side out against us and, for 40 or 50 minutes we were better than them so it doesn't really matter who we're playing against.

"The most important thing is getting the experience and improving as players."