Eighteen members of South Africa's triumphant 2007 Rugby World Cup-winning squad have been included in their 3-man squad for next month's tournament.
John Smit will again lead the challenge, and he is supported by 11 other survivors of the victorious 2007 starting fifteen.
Smit is one of six players who will be appearing at their third Rugby World Cup.
There are no uncapped players in the squad and all bar three have appeared in this season's Tri-Nations tournament.
The exceptions are looseforwards Schalk Burger and Francois Louw and lock Johann Muller who were ruled out by injury at various stages of the competition.
Another 2007 winner, Juan Smith, was ruled out of selection by injury along with preliminary squad members Andries Bekker and Duane Vermeulen.
The squad is made up of nine players who appeared in Super Rugby for the Bulls this season; eight from the Sharks and seven from the Stormers - although a number of players are now moving on to overseas clubs. The squad includes four overseas-based players in the Ulster duo of Ruan Pienaar and Johann Muller and Racing Metro's Frans Steyn. Louw has already moved to Bath in England, from the Stormers, but has yet to play a competition fixture for them.
The squad has a split of 16 forwards and 14 backs and boasts an average of 40 caps per player with ten of them having made more than a half century of Test appearances, while Pienaar is one short of a half century.
