Tom Shanklin Wales centre

Tom Shanklin has been named in Wales's starting XV for their crucial World Cup group game against Fiji on Saturday after being on the bench for the comprehensive win over Japan.

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

Q. Who, in your opinion, is the most skilled and complete rugby athlete in the Welsh squad?
Matthew Swift, Bridgend

I hate to say it, as he's got a big enough head as it is, but probably Gareth Thomas!

He tells us he's brilliant at football as well as rugby. He played in a charity football game at Wembley once, the rest of the world v celebrities, and was playing with Diego Maradona, Lothar Matthaus and Alistair Campbell.

Q. Who are your closest friends in the Wales changing room?
Stephen Hogg, Kent

I've got loads of friends in the squad, but the ones I get on best with are probably Jamie Robinson, who I spend a lot of time with at Cardiff, and Dwayne Peel. We were the 992nd, 993rd and 994th players to win Welsh caps so we've come up together.

I also spend a bit of time with Martyn Williams and Gareth Thomas. But we're all close - a lot of this team has been together for six or seven years now. We all have one thing in common, and that's that we love playing rugby.

It's difficult to find the kind of friendships you make in a team elsewhere, and it will definitely be something I'll miss when I retire.

Q. After the 'Sheep incident', has Dwayne Peel got back at Mark Jones?
Sian, Cardiff

I'm not sure, but everyone seems to be picking on Dwayne at the moment. Stephen Jones threw Dwayne's shoe in the swimming pool the other day, although it was after Dwayne splashed him, to be fair.

I think Dwayne's still biding his time to get Mark back though.

Q. Are the Welsh squad actually wearing shirts at the moment, or have you all had the jersey tattooed onto your naked torsos?!
Radon, Cardiff

Skin-tight shorts might have come in useful against Australia

They are quite tight, but I can confirm they are definitely shirts not tattoos! All the nations use them these days - obviously because when you're running through, people can't grab hold of them.

The problem is that they keep rising up over your belly and a lot of the props don't want to wear them, for obvious reasons.

The backs love them though! Maybe we can get shorts to match!?

Q. Why do we always excel when we have nothing to lose (e.g. All Blacks 2003, Australia 2007 second half)? Why can't we start to harness this ability when there is something to win?
Gareth Lee, Neath

I don't think that's the case, it just takes us a while sometimes to get going.

Sometimes we need something to spark us off and then we're up and running. We could have done with another 20 minutes against Australia as we didn't think we'd been in the game until the last quarter.

In other pre-seasons we've done loads of running, but this time we did lots of power weights and speed work and hopefully that will bear fruit.

Q. If you weren't in a rugby career, what would you like to do?
Debbie, 15, Bristol

I get asked this a lot, and I'm never quite sure what to say because I don't think I made any definite plans.

I probably would have been something like a PE teacher, because I started to do a sports science course at university in London before rugby took over.

Q. I'm convinced we have a team that could reach the last four of the World Cup. Are the boys as equally optimistic?
Stephen Calvert, Bedford (but Carmarthen really)

You've got to be. At the moment we're focussing on Fiji but we're trying not to build it up too much because we should beat them. But saying that, it is all or nothing for us.

It looks like we'll get South Africa in the quarters, but on our day, we've got a side who can play any team. It all depends on how we perform.

Q. I've read that when you won the Grand Slam your father could not watch and paced around the ground. I can totally identify with that sort of emotion when I am watching my beloved Wales play (and none of my relations play for Wales!).

How do you cope with watching the game from the sidelines?
Martyn Wigley, 37, Llandudoch

I'm generally fine watching from the sidelines. I do get nervous but not as bad as my dad.

The problem for him is that he knows the injuries that can happen. Actually, he did the same thing the other day. He came to Australia game and couldn't watch it. I think he just wandered around outside the Millennium Stadium!

Q. Of the centres playing in the World Cup, who do you most respect and admire in terms of their all-round ability?
Thomas Davies, 33, Surbiton

It sounds strange but I haven't watched too many games so far. There's loads of good centres in this World Cup, and I think you'll see the real quality come the business end of the tournament.

Nobody has really stood out through their individual brilliance so far, but there's plenty of time for that. I think Damien Traille has been brilliant for France, with his kicking out of defence. He's another kicking option for them and a great all-round player.

Q. From my position in the stand, for the Australia game we seemed to waste a few overlaps. With Sonny Parker and Gareth Thomas off the pitch it seemed you were the only player in the backline straightening up and committing tacklers.

Is this something that was highlighted by the coaching staff after the game?
William Webb Derek, 24, Cardiff

When you lose two big ball carriers like that, it's difficult. The rest of the backline are strong but don't have the size that those two have, so a lot of the onus was on me.

We did highlight that, especially in the second half. We needed to go at them in the fly-half and inside centre area. But we didn't really get the chance to do that.

One of my roles is to hit those angles, to try to hold defenders and create space elsewhere or be used as a target runner. But I always prefer it when there's a bit of size in there so I can stay a bit wider and read the game as I see it.