Next weekend's potentially pivotal clash with England has heavily influenced Warren Gatland's team selection for Wales' Rugby World Cup opener against Uruguay, but the experienced coach is confident he has made the right call.

Uruguay are expected to prove the whipping boys in Pool A and Gatland - with one eye on next Saturday's visit to Twickenham to face England - has rested a host of big names for Sunday's match at the Millennium Stadium.

Dan Biggar, George North, Gethin Jenkins, Taulupe Faletau and Jamie Roberts will all sit out Wales' first pool game, while Alun Wyn Jones has also been given the weekend off as he continues to deal with a knee problem.

"It wasn't a difficult decision in terms of picking the team," said Gatland - who is only the fourth man, after Graham Henry, Eddie O'Sullivan and John Kirwan, to serve as head coach at a third World Cup.

"I think it's a pretty strong side that's going out there and it's a good chance for those players to get the World Cup underway.

"We just want to win. I don't think the group is going to come down to points difference. We have got to go out there and first, win the game. After that, potentially, it's about scoring points. It's not about disrespecting Uruguay in any way.

"We have got a short turnaround to next week's game against England, so we have mixed and matched a little bit this week in terms of the way we have done things. Some of the focus has been on England and the latter part of the week has all been on Uruguay."

Wales' hopes of making the last eight have been dented by pre-tournament injuries to key players Rhys Webb and Leigh Halfpenny, while the latter's replacement - Eli Walker - was also forced to pull out with a hamstring complaint.

Nevertheless, anything other than a comfortable Wales win on Sunday would represent an enormous shock, given Uruguay have lost all 48 of their Tests against Tier 1 opposition.

The South American nation have conceded 352 points across their seven matches in the World Cup to date, exiting in the pool stage in 1999 and 2003.

Uruguay became the final nation to qualify for this year's tournament when they completed a two-legged play-off victory over Russia last October.