Retired Welsh defender James Collins featured for his country at the Under-19, Under-20 and Under-21 levels before he was given his debut at senior level. The centre back played for the Under-19 team three times in 2001 before he represented the Under-20 team two times in 2002. James Collins featured for the Wales Under-21 team eight times over a two-year period from 2002 to 2004 and even captained the team when they faced Germany.

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James Collins was handed his debut for the senior team against Norway in 2004 thereby becoming the first player to feature for Wales at every age level from schoolboy to the senior team in the history of the country. During his time with the Wales senior national team, Collins scored three times in 51 games over a period of twelve (12) years from 2004 to 2016. He scored the first of those three goals during the 3-1 loss to Cyprus on October 13, 2007.

Ex-Aston Villa, Cardiff City and West Ham United defender James Collins was a regular in the Wales starting XI during the qualifying campaign for the 2010 FIFA World Cup tournament in South Africa. In the end, Wales failed to qualify for the tournament. James Collins was the skipper for the final Wales’ qualifier ahead of South Africa 2010, a 2-0 win over Liechtenstein.

One of his darkest days in the Wales senior team was when he got a red card for a two-footed lunge on Guillaume Gillet during the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Belgium on September 7, 2012 which ended in a 2-0 defeat for his team.

James Collins was part of the Wales squad that reached the semi-finals at the 2016 European Championship in France before they were eliminated by eventual winners Portugal. He called time on his international career officially in November 2017.