After losing influential pair Leigh Halfpenny and Rhys Webb to serious leg injuries in their final warm-up game, replacement winger Eli Walker was ruled out of the tournament.
New Zealander Gatland struck a defiant tone, urging the media to write off his side as they look forward to Twickenham blockbusters against England and Australia later in Pool A.
All that must be forgotten when Wales knuckle down to the task against outsiders Uruguay in their opener in Cardiff on Sunday, with Gatland giving fringe players a chance to impress ahead of harder tests.
Wales, semi-finalists four years ago, will have two primary objectives; win and win well without losing any more key players.
"We think it’s a pretty strong side. It’s a good chance for those players to get the World Cup underway," he told reporters on Friday.
"We’ve got a short training week next week so we’ve mixed and matched, some of this week has been focussed on England (who Wales play on Sept. 26) and the latter part of this week has been on Uruguay.
A now injury-free Liam Williams will slot in at fullback in Halfpenny's absence while Gatland has handed the scrumhalf jersey to Gareth Davies who makes his first start and will hope to stake his claim with Webb ruled out of the tournament.
Up front, prop Samson Lee's return after a long injury absence following a ruptured Achilles is a big boost for Wales.
Uruguay are appearing at their third World Cup having beaten Russia in the repechage to secure the final spot and the South Americans will try to ruffle some feathers, while hoping to avoid defeats like the 111-13 drubbing by England in 2003 -- the last time they appeared in the finals.
Coach Pablo Lemoine wants 'Los Teros' to express themselves.
"We aim to show our rugby, the kind that we play, and to show what we are made of and what brought us here to this tournament," he said.
"Our ambition is very clear. We always saw qualifying to play at this World Cup as an opportunity but not our final objective, which is to grow as a team and play better and better."
Teams
Wales: 1-Paul James, 2-Scott Baldwin,3-Samson Lee, 4-Jake Ball, 5-Luke Charteris, 6-Sam Warburton (captain),7-Justin Tipuric; 8-James King, 9-Gareth Davies, 10-Rhys Priestland, 11-Hallam Amos, 12-Scott Williams, 13-Cory Allen, 14-Alex Cuthbert,
15-Liam Williams.
Replacements: 16-Ken Owens, 17-Aaron Jarvis,
18-Tomas Francis, 19-Dominic Day, 20-Dan Lydiate, 21-Ross Moriarty, 22-Lloyd Williams, 23-Matthew Morgan.
Uruguay: TBA
(Editing by Ed Osmond)
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