My Life in Rugby: Tom Shanklin – former London Welsh, Saracens, Cardiff and Wales centre

When I was 20 Clive Woodward tried to poach me for England and it actually led to my first Wales call-up.
I was at Saracens, and he got my number off Kyran Bracken and gave me a call, saying he wanted to include me in the Six Nations squad.
I was really flattered but I said: “Look, I can’t make a decision now.” I think word spread around and I soon got a call from Wales coach Graham Henry – it got their arses in gear.
I had a good run but I was never the same once I injured my knee in 2005. I couldn’t really do what I wanted to anymore.
I wasn’t very lucky with injuries whenever a Lions tour came around. In 2005, just travelling was a big problem because of the fear of my knee swelling up on the aeroplane.
In the first Test Brian O’Driscoll went down and Clive Woodward said to me; “If you’re fit, you’re going to play.” I wanted to make it through on the adrenaline taking over but I knew I couldn’t. I said: “Look, I’m not up to it, it’s not good for the team and I don’t want to let them down.”
Then, for the 2009 Lions tour, I injured my shoulder a week before we met up. I had never had a shoulder injury before but I feared the worst as soon as it happened, to miss out on a Lions tour at that stage was horrible.
I actually didn’t get into rugby until I was about 13 or 14. I played for Greenhill School in Tenby and the nearby club – my dad was a local boy and he had played for Tenby, too.
I then moved to England and spent a year at Effingham before joining London Welsh. I worked my way up the age groups and I had a chance when I was 17 to sign for Saracens.
It was quite daunting. You meet all these stars that you watched on TV – Francois Pienaar was the coach and you see guys like Kyran Bracken and Thomas Castaignede.
I spent four years at Saracens and I had opportunities to go to Wales – I remember Nigel Davies ringing me up to see if I was interested in joining the Scarlets. It was all quite flattering but I wanted to play for Cardiff.
They were probably the biggest club in Wales and I knew a lot of guys there – it was a fairly young team and that’s what you look for when you are 23 years old.
We won the EDF Cup – that was a big thing for us. We had always been at the top end of the league or reached the quarters or semis of the Heineken Cup but it was nice to get a bit of silverware.
But the main reason I came back to Wales was to progress further at international level.
It was probably around 2004 that I really managed to get my place in the team. I was always involved but I was picked on the wing or on the bench. It is good because you’re versatile but that can be a hindrance. It is a bit like James Hook – he has never really found his position but he will always be involved.
Looking back, my biggest career highlight is the 2005 Grand Slam. The way the whole team played and the way we went about it – we just seemed to get better and better. There were ten or 12 guys who had come through the tricky times of losing ten games on the trot and losing to Italy.
The match I remember was the last one, the Ireland game – it was a beautiful day and the whole city was buzzing.