John Smit believes the Springboks have the right balance between youth and experience

John Smit says South Africa's young talent will complement their wealth of experience in the 2015 World Cup.

Smit played in three World Cups for the Springboks, the first in 2003 in what was an awful campaign for the South Africans.

Beaten by England in Melbourne in the pool stages, the Boks were then taken apart by the All Blacks in the quarter-finals and dumped out early.

The loss prompted changes within the organisation, with Jake White appointed head coach and Smit handed the captaincy, and the pair took South Africa from sixth-placed in the world following their worst World Cup, to world champions in Paris just four years later.

White spoke throughout his tenure of the importance of experience in a World Cup, and while Smit agrees, he has also praised the contribution of some of the newer faces that have come into the 2015 squad ahead of this year's tournament.

"It's nice to inject some freshness," said Smit.

"There are a good bunch of youngsters to go along with the likes of Victor Matfield, Jean de Villiers and Schalk Burger, who have seen some campaigns and been around the block."

"Would the All Blacks have preferred to win four World Cups, or be the team that's performed the most consistently over that time?"

Those younger players will line up next to a host of experience in the tournament this year, but in terms of the starting team, Smit believes it has been settled for some time.

"I think Heyneke Meyer picked his squad 18 months ago, and now it's just about the one-off guys like Vincent Koch and Damian de Allende trying to get into the starting team.

"The culture that Meyer has chosen to attack a World Cup campaign would have been decided quite a while ago, and you can't change too much of that at a late stage."

The 111-Test veteran is also confident in De Villiers, the man chosen to replace Smit when he retired from the international arena.

"I couldn't have asked for a better successor - I think he's done an unbelievable job," said Smit. "His rapport with the players, fans and media is just great.

"He's a consistent performer too. I don't think we could have made a better choice.

"I'm also not sure that we have vast amounts of depth at centre, which is another reason why I'm desperate for Jean to make a full recovery."

De Villiers suffered a horrible injury against Wales last year, which kept him out of action for most of the season. The Stormers centre completed his international comeback in this year's Rugby Championship, starting against Argentina, but then suffered a fresh injury in that game.

With the Springboks' squad announced on Friday, De Villiers' experience will likely still warrant a place in the 31 despite not much game time in the lead up, which indicates the sheer importance placed on winning the World Cup.

There is no escaping the magnitude of a World Cup, but Smit says there comes a point where it's detrimental for a team to focus entirely on it.

"The reason people put so much emphasis on it is because it's the world stage.

"Would the All Blacks have preferred to win four World Cups, or be the team that's performed the most consistently over that time? I don't know.

"Most people couldn't tell you who was ranked number one in the world last year - though they'd probably guess the All Blacks - but they could all tell you who won the last World Cup.

"It's difficult but you've got to get the balance right. It's about giving coaches enough time to prepare so that when they get there they are all aligned, but you don't want to get to the point where you lose every game after the World Cup."

As for who he thinks will win the competition, Smit believes the usual sides will be in the running, but has warned the bigger teams not to be complacent.

"Obviously the All Blacks will be the favourites yet again," he said. "The French you never really know, but you saw what they did at the last World Cup - they've got the ability and the players.

"England as the host nation are in with a strong chance. Ireland are unbelievably well coached. If they don't get too many injuries they've got one or two veterans that will help them through the stages.

"Wales are always a difficult team to beat. They aren't a difficult team to analyse but if they're effective in what they want to do they are hard to stop. Australia have undone South Africa a number of times over the last few years and will be tough to beat.

"But I also think there are a few teams coming into the World Cup who could spring some surprises on the top five or six sides in the world.

"It's going to be an exciting World Cup to watch - there are going to be a few surprises."

John Smit is a Heineken© rugby legend. As Rugby World Cup 2015 Worldwide partner, Heineken is bringing you closer to the action, find out more at @Heineken #itsyourcall