Cardiff Blues travel to Scotland on Saturday to take on Edinburgh in the Magners League, Saturday 9 January 6.30pm kick off, knowing that they must get some points if they are to get a top four finish.
Edinburgh have lost three of their last four games in the Magners League, however, the Blues have lost all four away encounters in the Magners League this season and have not won at Murrayfield since recording a 20-0 win on 28 March 2008.
Ceri Sweeney starts at Outside Half having looked lively when he came on against the Dragons and the Ospreys during the festive period, while Leigh Halfpenny, who needs game time under his belt, gets a run out at Fullback.
Speaking ahead of the match Cardiff Blues Director of Rugby, David Young knows that his team need to improve their performances if they are to start climbing the league table.
“We haven’t really taken off this season and haven’t really put in an 80 minutes performance together.” said Young.
“I’m confident that when we can get some continuity in our selection and get somewhere near our best team out on the field we will start to play the way we can.”
“At this moment we’ve got to start producing better performances and start picking up points.”
“The season isn’t going 100% to plan but this is when players, coaches and everybody have got to earn their stripes and look at where things are going wrong and hopefully start putting things together.”
“We’ve had a couple of glimpses of what we can do and a couple of false dawns so we will be looking for an improved performance against Edinburgh this Saturday.”
Cardiff Blues 15 Leigh Halfpenny 14 Richard Mustoe 13 Casey Laulala 12 Jamie Roberts 11 Tom James 10 Ceri Sweeney 9 Gareth Cooper
8 Andy Powell 7 Martyn Williams 6 Andries Pretorius 5 Paul Tito (c) 4 Deiniol Jones 3 Taufa’au Filise 2 T Rhys Thomas 1 Sam Hobbs
16 Rhys James 17 Scott Andrews 18 Bradley Davies 19 Ben White 20 Richie Rees 21 Dai Flanagan 22 Gareth Thomas
Injuries
Tom Shanklin – Suffered a knee against the Ospreys and had an injection in it this week
Gary Powell – Not available for selection with a facial injury
Robin Sowden Taylor – Suffered an Achilles injury in the match against the Ospreys.
Sam Warburton – Not available after suffering a dead leg
Gareth Williams – Suffering with a groin injury
None of the injuries are thought to be serious and all the above should be available for selection next week.
Gethin Jenkins is rested while Xavier Rush is also rested having started in 15 matches for the Blues so far this season.
