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Wellington - The Springboks have named their most experienced team ever for the opening game in the defence of their World Cup crown against Wales on Sunday.
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The team, which has a staggering total of 815 caps, features 16 members of the victorious 2007 squad in the match-day squad, with 11 in the starting 15.
"It feels like it's taken an age to get to this day," said captain and hooker John Smit, who led the Springboks to glory in France four years ago.
"There's still a couple more days (to the game), we'll get to feel the fever. By the time we get to Sunday, the boys will pretty much know exactly what their purpose is in New Zealand."
Coach Peter de Villiers made five changes from the one that defeated New Zealand 18-5 in the final game of the Tri-Nations in Port Elizabeth last month.
Captain John Smit replaces Bismarck du Plessis and loosehead prop Tendai Mtawarira takes Gurthro Steenkamp's place in the front row featuring all Sharks players.
Schalk Burger comes in for Willem Alberts on the openside flank, Frans Steyn is named at fullback while lock Danie Rossouw replaces Bakkies Botha, ruled out because of a nagging Achilles injury.
De Villiers named another two forwards on the bench alongside Du Plessis, Steenkamp and Alberts: prop CJ van der Linde and Ulster-based lock Johann Muller, who could make his first appearance since the third Test against the British and Irish Lions in 2009.
Francois Hougaard and Butch James complete the bench line-up for Sunday's Pool D clash at Westpac Stadium here.
"Bakkies will always be a tough call," De Villiers said of injured enforcer Botha. "Victor (Matfield) and Bryan (Habana) were always ready to go" after also nursing injuries.
"If we'd pushed Bakkies, he'd be ready to go but it's a long tournament."
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."
De Villiers also played down any suggestion that Wales would be a roll-over.
"We don't find weaknesses very easily in tier one countries. We'd be stupid if we try and do that," he said.
"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."
Teams:
South Africa: 15 Frans Steyn, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 Jean de Villiers, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Morné Steyn, 9 Fourie du Preez, 8 Pierre Spies, 7 Schalk Burger, 6 Heinrich Brüssow, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Danie Rossouw, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 John Smit (captain), 1 Beast Mtawarira.
Substitutes: 16 Bismarck du Plessis, 17 Gurthrö Steenkamp, 18 CJ van der Linde, 19 Johann Muller, 20 Willem Alberts, 21 Francois Hougaard, 22 Butch James.
Wales:
TBA
Click to BUY the new Drifta Mobile USB Decoder
Click to BUY the Rugby World Cup 2011 Game for Xbox
The team, which has a staggering total of 815 caps, features 16 members of the victorious 2007 squad in the match-day squad, with 11 in the starting 15.
"It feels like it's taken an age to get to this day," said captain and hooker John Smit, who led the Springboks to glory in France four years ago.
"There's still a couple more days (to the game), we'll get to feel the fever. By the time we get to Sunday, the boys will pretty much know exactly what their purpose is in New Zealand."
Coach Peter de Villiers made five changes from the one that defeated New Zealand 18-5 in the final game of the Tri-Nations in Port Elizabeth last month.
Captain John Smit replaces Bismarck du Plessis and loosehead prop Tendai Mtawarira takes Gurthro Steenkamp's place in the front row featuring all Sharks players.
Schalk Burger comes in for Willem Alberts on the openside flank, Frans Steyn is named at fullback while lock Danie Rossouw replaces Bakkies Botha, ruled out because of a nagging Achilles injury.
De Villiers named another two forwards on the bench alongside Du Plessis, Steenkamp and Alberts: prop CJ van der Linde and Ulster-based lock Johann Muller, who could make his first appearance since the third Test against the British and Irish Lions in 2009.
Francois Hougaard and Butch James complete the bench line-up for Sunday's Pool D clash at Westpac Stadium here.
"Bakkies will always be a tough call," De Villiers said of injured enforcer Botha. "Victor (Matfield) and Bryan (Habana) were always ready to go" after also nursing injuries.
"If we'd pushed Bakkies, he'd be ready to go but it's a long tournament."
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."
De Villiers also played down any suggestion that Wales would be a roll-over.
"We don't find weaknesses very easily in tier one countries. We'd be stupid if we try and do that," he said.
"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."
Teams:
South Africa: 15 Frans Steyn, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 Jean de Villiers, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Morné Steyn, 9 Fourie du Preez, 8 Pierre Spies, 7 Schalk Burger, 6 Heinrich Brüssow, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Danie Rossouw, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 John Smit (captain), 1 Beast Mtawarira.
Substitutes: 16 Bismarck du Plessis, 17 Gurthrö Steenkamp, 18 CJ van der Linde, 19 Johann Muller, 20 Willem Alberts, 21 Francois Hougaard, 22 Butch James.
Wales:
TBA
