MARK Taylor thought his career was over a year ago.

The former Pontypool centre, who is joining Llanelli after a long spell with Swansea, badly damaged knee ligaments on the British Lions tour of Australia and his career was in jeopardy.

Now the Blaenavon-raised player is in Australia as part of Wales' World Cup squad and is determined to strike a top note. He went on as a replacement against Canada last Sunday and hopes to start against Tonga next Sunday though he admits competition in his position is fierce.

"I missed six or seven months after the Lions tour and the only thing that kept me going after that was getting up and doing the mileage, doing the physio and getting on the bike," he said today.

"The one thing that spurred me on was this, playing in the World Cup was the one goal I wanted at the end of my career. It brought me along to every training camp so I had the carrot to keep me going."

Taylor admits the competition at centre is as strong as ever, but says the team spirit is as good as any.

"There is a great deal of competition in the centre. It's always strong in the best teams, and now it's as strong as at any time in my career," he said.

"There have been Scott Gibbs and Allan Bateman in my time as well as Leigh Davies - Wales always seem to produce good centres. It makes you get out every day to try to prove you are the best.

"I'm disappointed I didn't start in the first World Cup match, but that's the sort of thing you can expect with four equal centres here. As one of the older boys, you think there's an awful lot of talent here.

"There is a lot of potential and if this squad stays together it can do really well.

"There is tremendous team spirit. It wasn't a very good Six Nations obviously, but the spirit of the boys never broke and it's as good as any I've been involved in. This squad is young enough to go on and do great things."

Taylor (pictured above) says there is no way Wales can take the Tongans lightly after the start to the World Cup made by the higher ranked teams.

"Everything has gone as expected with the favourites producing good performances," he said.

"We can't underestimate Tonga, we don't know a great deal about them, so we're having a look at them tonight against Italy.

"We know they've got quality players and they will produce the usual stuff, very physical. But we should not underestimate their speed and their skill either. We must not have any preconceived ideas.

"I rate their scrum half Sililo Martens as high as any I've played with.

"Maybe Rob Howley was more talented, but he makes up for that with his enthusiasm and aggression.

"If they have 15 like that we could be in trouble."