Tom Shanklin Wales centre

Tom Shanklin was in Wales's starting XV for the World Cup games against Canada and Australia. On Thursday he will be on the bench as a much-changed side faces Japan at the Millennium Stadium.

He took time out from preparing for the match to answer a selection of your questions.

Q. We've heard talk of disputes in the camp and players querying tactics. Is there any truth in this?
Rob, Swansea

There's no problem with anything in the camp, it's fine. We all know the game plan we want to play, we're just a little bit off it but we're not far away. At the weekend it was the little things that stopped us from playing, things like the last pass and turnovers let us down, but we want to play this wide attacking game.

Q. All my mates (English and Welsh) poke fun at my English accent despite the fact my heritage is Welsh. As a fellow Welshman from England, do you get stick from the Welsh boys for this too?
Tristan Cox, Hereford

I do get a bit but I'm pretty sharp so I can deflect it, and now with Will James and Chris Horsman, I've learned to deflect it onto them.

Shanklin says he is not one on life's naturally fiery characters

Q. Sorry to bring England into this question, but I recall Joe Worsley talking about how he isn't naturally aggressive and so needs to work up to games. How do you and the rest of our squad get themselves fired up, and who is naturally a bit mad anyway?
Richard Jones, Manchester

I'm not that aggressive but you don't need to fire yourself up for playing for your country, that's all the motivation I need. I try and relax before games but about an hour before kick off I start to really concentrate on what I want to do well.

People are different, there are a few aggressive people in the squad, Chris Horsman is aggressive in training but probably the most aggressive is Ceri Sweeney - he's got 'short man syndrome' or something, he's permanently on the prowl.

Q. What are some the nick-names that members of the squad have? Are there any funny ones?
Barry John, Nottingham

Martin Williams is Nugget - not sure why, maybe it's because of his golden hair, Dwayne Peel is Cyril after Cyril the Swan because he's got a long neck, Grubb is Gareth Cooper because he's smelly, mine is Shanks but it's not very original, the Count is Steve Jones because he looks like Dracula, Kevin Morgan is Rat because he's got bad breath, Gethin Jenkins is Melon because he's got a massive head, Ceri Sweeney is Truckhead for the same reason.

We look at our team's nicknames then look at England and they're called things like Wilko, and we laugh.

Q. How do you find being the only public school educated player in the welsh squad and do the other players think you're posh?
Ricardo Ferriere, London

I'm not public school educated, I don't know why people think that, I just have manners and pronounce my words. I'm not really posh, they might think I am but I'm not. I went to normal comprehensives in Tenby and Surrey, called Greenhill and the Howard Effingham, which sounds posh but it wasn't.

Q. What's your favourite post-match food and drink?
Steffan MacMillan, London

That's a good one - I don't like to eat too much before a game because I struggle with digestion, maybe some poached eggs and pancakes. Afterwards, it's all stuff like shakes and recovery drinks, we plough into that straight away. We also have food at the ground and it's all high protein stuff. The shakes are all disgusting but I suppose my favourite is chocolate. If we go out for a couple of beers we make sure we have our recovery drinks first.

Q. Which of the old Welsh rugby songs gets you and the team really fired up when you're on the pitch and it's being sung by 70,000 Welshmen?
James Thomas, London

Bread of Heaven is the only one you can really pick out from the pitch. The only one that's ever really stuck in my head was back in the Grand Slam days with about 10 minutes to go against Ireland, I could hear "the Grand Slam's coming home", that's the only one I can really remember. You hear the crowd cheering but normally you're concentrating on the game too much.

Q. It seems to me that you more often than not beat at least the first opposition tackler when you get clean ball. Can you describe how you do that, thought processes, training, vision etc - I am sure lots of young rugby players out there would like to know.
David Edwards, Aberdare

You're normally looking to run at space and arms. A lot of people do a lot of steps to try and get on the outside - Agility Before Contact, they call it - but I normally just take one step and power through. I run through the line rather than stopping and checking as this gives me more speed and power to try and run through the tackle.

Q. Will you be wearing the golf glove after any of the games in this World Cup?
Dylan Owen, Adelaide

About four years ago when we were in Australia, I went out one night and found a golf glove in my pocket, so I ended up wearing it. But I looked a bit like Michael Jackson, so I don't wear it any more.