TOBY Faletau is one of the fast rising stars of world rugby, topping the tackle count after the first two rounds of the tournament with 39.

But the Newport Gwent Dragons No 8, who is not 21 until next month, still insists he will take nothing for granted and welcomes the competition in the back row.

Former captain Ryan Jones made his first World Cup start against Namibia after recovering from a calf injury and will bid for a place in the line up against Fiji and beyond, while Faletau’s Dragons teammate Dan Lydiate is sure to return once he recovers from his ankle injury.

“The threat is always there and you can’t take anything for granted,” said Faletau after scoring his second try in the competition in Wales’ 81-7 rout of Namibia in New Plymouth.

“There’s competition throughout the side and you just have to train hard and try to play well. Everyone did well against Namibia, including the replacements who all made an impact.

“Some of the boys who started stood up, Scott Williams had a good game and George North was awesome.

“It feels great to be involved, we’ve got a few boys back from injury now and it’s better for everyone if there’s competition.”

Faletau believes there is plenty to work on despite their runaway victory over Namibia and insists they have to finish the job against Fiji on Sunday.

“It was good to put together a good win, but we have to finish the job now to make the quarter-finals,” he said.

“It was a good team performance and great to be involved in. But we have things to work on for the Fiji game though a number of things we tried came off.

“Fiji always chuck the ball around so they’ll be a threat which we’ll have to keep an eye on.”

Though he has started all three of Wales’ World Cup games, Faletau still didn’t want to come off the pitch in the second half and denied it was pre-arranged.

“It would have been nice to stay out there and play the rest of the game,” he said. “I’m happy to play through every game if that’s what they want, you don’t get to play in the World Cup much.

“My try was the work of other people, I just follow the line. There are other people with high tackle counts apart from me, it’s hard to know what to make of that top tackling statistic.”

And Faletau was delighted to see and hear the support of so many fans in the ground while he also helped applaud the Namibians along with his teammates after their final match in the World Cup.