NEWPORT’S James Collins wants to prolong his international career and be part of Welsh football’s exciting future.

The West Ham United defender turns 33 in August but he has no intention of ending his Wales career after helping Chris Coleman’s men reach the Euro 2016 semi-finals.

Collins started in Lyon on Wednesday night and kept Cristiano Ronaldo quiet for 45 minutes before the Real Madrid star finally ended Wales’ tournament and sent Portugal to Sunday’s final in Paris.

Ronaldo headed the opening goal on 50 minutes and created the second for Nani three minutes later to send Wales home.

But Collins is excited by the potential of this young team and he wants to be a part of it as Coleman’s men head into the qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

“We’re disappointed,” he said. “It’s never nice to lose, especially in a semi-final.

“But I think in a couple of days we’ll look back and be tremendously proud of what we’ve done.

“It was nice for me to get a first start. Obviously I would have liked to have been part of a winning team but that’s football.

“It was a great header and a bit of a scrappy goal and everyone is disappointed.”

Ronaldo did not enjoy his first half duel with Collins but the former Cardiff City star certainly did.

“I was enjoying it in the first half,” he said. “It went very well. We knew they were going to chuck a lot of crosses in and we were ready for that. We worked on it in training and it was going well.

“But to concede two goals so quick sort of knocked the stuffing out of us really.

“To be honest I don’t think he [Ronaldo] did anything amazing in the game but he’s scored the first goal, which is always going to be vital.

“He’s a world class player who’s performed again on the world stage.”

Despite the disappointment, Collins is positive about the future with World Cup qualifiers set to start in September.

“We’ve got to be proud of ourselves,” he added. “It’s such a young squad so we can’t be deflated after this – getting to the semi-final.

“Nobody thought we’d get here and it’s such a young team that are going to have a lot more success.

“This isn’t the end, it’s the start of something massive.”

And, asked if he would carry on playing for Wales, Collins replied: “Yeah, I think so. I’ll obviously have a chat [with Coleman] and see how things are going at West Ham next season and go from there.”