THE build-up to the World Cup starts now for Wales coach Warren Gatland as he gets ready to name his squad for the game against South Africa at the Millennium Stadium on June 5 and for the two-Test visit to New Zealand which follows.

Gatland will name a 27-strong squad for the three matches on May 16 after he has taken in Saturday’s Amlin Challenge semi-final when Cardiff Blues take on Wasps at Adams Park and the Magners League play-offs which will involve the Ospreys.

And Gatland indicated Wales could face England home and away in World Cup warm-up matches next summer as well as a possible repeat against world champions South Africa while he is looking at holding training camps in Poland.

That would make a daunting schedule of 15-Tests between now and the World Cup, a year September, against the the Springboks and All Blacks (twice) in June, the two southern hemisphere superpowers plus Australia and Fiji in November, the five-game Six Nations in the new year followed by England twice and possibly South Africa again next summer, as well as a possible trial match.

But that is exactly the kind of test Gatland wants as the preparation for the World Cup starts in earnest.

“The countdown is starting for the World Cup, I’m excited about it, we’ve got to play the best teams in the world, the only way to get better is to play the best,” said Gatland at a Press conference yesterday called to announce the Principality Building Society’s backing for the South Africa game.

“This will give us the right preparation and ensures we will be battle hardened for the World Cup.

“Physically we’re in great shape, you saw that with the way we finished the Six Nations games, now we’ll start fine tuning our game with the aim of finishing off our opportunities to turn it into winning rugby.

“It’ll be like getting together with a club team spending four or five months with the players and going into fine tuning, I’m hugely excited about that.”

Gatland explained they are going to some of the venues in New Zealand next month they will occupy for the World Cup, with the two Tests in Dunedin and Hamilton - his home town where he was a member of the Waikato team which beat the touring Wales side back in 1988, their first win against a national side.

“It’ll be the last game ever at Carisbrooke as they are building a new stadium, then the second is at Hamilton where we will be based for the games against Samoa and Fiji,” he said.

“Hamilton are talking of adopting Wales as a World Cup team, so we will be going around schools, including the one where I played, we’ll train there and drum up a bit of support and have an impact.”

Gatland is expecting the Springboks to mount a big challenge next month even if they are below strength.

“They’ll be strong whatever team they put out given their strength in depth. They can call on Butch James and Jean de Villiers and a number of others based in Europe,” he said.

“They’re a quality side and any players putting on a Springbok jersey will have a massive opportunity.”