Defending champions South Africa get their World Cup campaign under way in Wellington on Sunday against a Wales side growing in confidence but with an awful record against the Springboks.

South Africa's coach Peter de Villiers pulled no punches with his team for their opening game, picking the most experienced team in the country's history.

With a staggering 815 caps, the John Smit-led team features 16 members of the victorious 2007 squad in the match-day squad, with 11 in the starting 15.

After a patchy start to the Tri-Nations where a second-string team suffered to make an impact, De Villiers fielded his preferred team in the final game and they recorded a 18-5 win over New Zealand.

"We don't find weaknesses very easily in tier one countries. We'd be stupid if we try and do that," said De Villiers, whose side enjoy an enviable record of just one loss and one draw against Wales in 25 meetings.

"What we tend to do, and I think we've been very successful over the four years in doing so, is to concentrate on what we want to do and try to do it as good as we can."

Smit and loosehead prop Tendai Mtawarira come in for Bismarck du Plessis and Gurthrö Steenkamp in the front row, with starts also handed to flanker Schalk Burger, fullback Frans Steyn and lock Danie Rossouw.

De Villiers justified his bench selection of five forwards and just two backs as playing to the Springboks' strengths up front.

"It's our first game on tour and we opted for a few things we wanted to try out in the game," the coach said.

"I believe we've got a very strong bench and that always determines your team.

"We made decisions based on where strengths are. We know what we want to achieve from this game and the make-up of the bench reflects that."

Wales coach Warren Gatland expressed hope that his side would be able to match the incredible strength in depth of the Springbok bench.

"The bench is key. When you look at South Africa's bench and see how strong it is, they're able to change the game," the Kiwi said.

"In the past number of meetings, we've been up against South Africa and been winning the game, they've been able to have an effective impact off the bench.

"It's fairly obvious where they're going to play the game: they'll take us on up front. It was effective in the last game against the All Blacks. They want to dominate you physically, so it wasn't a surprise for us."

He also called for the Welsh to be more accurate in their execution, something he said had cost them dear in past meetings.

"The last three or four times we played South Africa, we've been in a position to win the game, been up, and some of the losses have been a little bit of our own downfall, lack of accuracy in key moments."

He added: "We're not going into this game hoping they have a bad day and that everything goes well for us. We're going into it with some confidence.

"South Africa are very experienced. They're a tough team to beat.

"But we've got a nice mix of some talented youngsters with some experience as well.

Wales captain Sam Warburton insisted that his team's goals were clear.

"We've got to qualify from our group and get into the quarter-finals. Anything else will be disappointing," the 22-year-old flanker said.

"The win is vitally important for us this weekend, but we still have four games to try to get through the group.

"To come through the group in first place would be ideal."

AFP