Cardiff team: 15 Ben Blair, 14 Richard Mustoe, 13 Gareth Thomas, 12 Dafydd Hewitt, 11 Chris Czekaj, 10 Sam Norton-Knight, 9 Gareth Cooper, 8 Xavier Rush (c), 7 Ben White, 6 Sam Warburton, 5 Scott Morgan, 4 Deiniol Jones, 3 Gary Powell, 2 Gareth Williams, 1 Taufa'au Filise.
Reserves: 16 T Rhys Thomas, 17 Sam Hobbs, 18 Paul Tito, 19 Robin Sowden Taylor, 20 Richie Rees, 21 Ceri Sweeney, 22 Gavin Evans.
Wales has released squad players 9 Cooper and 6 Warburton for the game but have not released CB players: 6/8 Andy Powell, 1. Gethin Jenkins, 12. Jamie Roberts, 13 Tom Shanklin, 7. Martyn Williams, nor wingers Tom James and Leigh Halfpenny. Another international, Daffyd James, is injured.
But the Cardiff Blues are aways hard to beat at home and they have some good players left in the cupboard.
Two of their best players are Kiwis 8 Xavier Rush and 15. Ben Blair. The fact that Andy Powell has to play 6 for the Blues, instead of his favoured 8 spot, says it all for Rush, who lives up to his name. 15. Ben Blair is back from an injury and was in prime form before it, as he has been for years. Whilst he never lived up to the wrap given to him by yours truly – when after seeing him for the Canterbury I said he was the natural successor to Christian Cullen – he is superb at the professional club level.
I thought another Kiwi, new recruit 13. Casey Laulala, may have got a game for the Blues, but at least his countryman 4. Paul Tito, another who is tops at this level, is on the bench. Another S14 player, 7. Ben White from the Brumbies, who has started a lot recently, is also getting a run as is big mother 1. Taufa'au Filise who went from the Blues in Super rugby to the Blues in the Magners League.
14. Kurtley Beale is going to have his work cut out on the wing defending against stepper 14. Richard Mustoe, a Wales 7s player who has more moves than Bobby Fischer and is faster than Kurtley. And 13. Ryan Cross, will have a big challenge playing against icon 13. “Alfie” Thomas, who has played 1,000 games for Wales.
10. SNK had a truly horrible debut game for the CBs against Edinburgh but has lifted his game to goodish since then. He is a regular starter and has been covering for Blair at fullback whilst he was out, but is now back to flyhalf. Scrummie Gareth Cooper is class as is his reserve Richie Rees. If Rees gets on the park, watch his snipe.
The weekend before last I saw the Blues play a dire game against London Irish in the AW Cup with Aussies Hewat and Malone playing for the Exiles. If the Oz DTs are allowed to play a high tempo game they will run rings around Cardiff; but if they get sucked into a NH type game that the Blues played without their stars in that game, they will be strangled.
