Preview: Edinburgh v Cardiff Blues

Editor

Cardiff Blues coach David Young has named an unchanged side to the one that beat Castres last weekend to play Edinburgh.

Cardiff Blues coach David Young has named an unchanged side to the one that beat Castres last weekend to play Edinburgh on Saturday.

The Blues travel to the Scottish capital knowing that they must win to have any chance of reaching the Amlin Challenge Cup quarter-finals.

However, if they do record the win they would still need other results, in other pools to go there way.

“We've looked at the permutations of qualifying, but first and foremost, we have to win. Then we also need two or three results to go our way,” said Youngs.

“It would be great if we could go up there and get a bonus point as that would put us in a better position again, but I don't expect the players to be focused on that.”

“Although it's been disappointing we haven't qualified for the Heineken Cup quarters, I think if we can go to Scotland and put in a good performance and get the result, then I don't it's a campaign we can be proud of, but it won't have been a disaster either.”

“If a win is enough to take us through to the Amlin, then great, if it's not, it's not.”

Meanwhile, Edinburgh coach Rob Moffat insists his side are desperate to bounce back from their defeat to Northampton when they face the Blues.

Edinburgh went down 37-0 at Franklin's Gardens, however they have won five of their last six European games at Murrayfield.

And Moffat believes his players are fired up to set the record straight.

“The guys were frustrated and disappointed after last Friday's game, and it's really come across in training this week that they want to make amends and give our supporters another good win at home,” he said.

“Not much went our way down in Northampton, but equally we know that we made too many mistakes at crucial times to quibble with the result.

“Regardless of the overall situation in the pool, we need to give a better account of ourselves against Cardiff and finish our involvement in the Heineken with a really positive performance and result. The players know that better than anyone, and I sense a real determination on their part to deliver.”

Moffat has made five changes to his line-up, with Lee Jones, Simon Webster, Allan Jacobsen, Lewis Niven and David Denton all handed starts.
Edinburgh, though, will be without the injured Tim Visser and the ill David Blair.

The teams:

Edinburgh: 15 Jim Thompson, 14 Lee Jones, 13 Ben Cairns, 12 Nick De Luca, 11 Simon Webster, 10 Chris Paterson, 9 Mike Blair, 8 Roddy Grant, 7 Alan MacDonald, 6 David Denton, 5 Esteban Lozada, 4 Scott MacLeod, 3 Lewis Niven, 2 Ross Ford, 1 Allan Jacobsen.
Replacements: 16 Kyle Traynor, 17 Geoff Cross, 18 David Young, 19 Fraser McKenzie, 20 Stuart McInally, 21 Greig Laidlaw, 22 Ross Samson, 23 James King.

Cardiff Blues: 15 Chris Czekaj, 14 Leigh Halfpenny, 13 Casey Laulala, 12 Jamie Roberts, 11 Richard Mustoe, 10 Dan Parks, 9 Tom Slater, 8 Maama Molitika, 7 Martyn Williams, 6 Andries Pretorius, 5 Paul Tito (c), 4 Deiniol Jones, 3 Tafa'ao Filise, 2 T Rhys Thomas, 1 John Yapp.
Replacements: 16 Gareth Williams, 17 Scott Andrews, 18 Sam Hobbs, 19 Bradley Davies, 20 Ben White, 21 Ceri Sweeney, 22 Dafydd Hewitt, 23 Tom James.

Date: Saturday, 22 January
Venue: Murrayfield
Kick-off: 17:45 GMT
Referee: Pascal Gauzere (France)
Assistant referees: Patrick Pechambert (France), Jean-Pierre Matheu (France)