Preview: Cardiff Blues v Toulouse

This Saturday the Heineken Cup pool stages bring French giants Toulouse to Cardiff to face the Blues for a third consecutive season.

This Saturday the Heineken Cup pool stages bring French giants Toulouse to Cardiff to face the Blues for a third consecutive season in the European competition.

It currently stands at one win apiece for the two teams and after last season's quarter-final defeat, Toulouse will be looking for revenge.

December brings the crucial double headers to the Heineken Cup and all teams are well aware of the importance of these matches.

“These two games are obviously massive in the shake up really you've got to win your own games so Saturday's game is absolutely critical for us and our onward involvement in the knock out stages,” said Cardiff Blues Director of Rugby David Young.

“Normally you can look through a team and say there's two or three key players but when you've got the budget of Toulouse and you've got the world stars they've got, they've got some real influential players right across the board really.”

In team news, new recruit Casey Laulala has been ruled out after originally being named to play his first Heineken Cup match and Tom Shanklin comes in to partner Jamie Roberts in midfield.

Meanwhile, the French giants are missing their two scrum-half options for the game as Byron Kelleher and Jean-Baptiste Elissalde remain on the sidelines.

But that has not stopped Guy Noves from rolling out an impressive starting XV that includes thirteen internationals. Thierry Dusautoir returns after being rested last weekend and will link up with Louis Picamoles and Shaun Sowerby in the back-row.

The teams:

Cardiff Blues: 15 Ben Blair, 14 Leigh Halfpenny, 13 Tom Shanklin, 12 Jamie Roberts, 11 Tom James, 10 Sam Norton Knight, 9 Gareth Cooper, 8 Xavier Rush, 7 Martyn Williams, 6 Andy Powell, 5 Paul Tito,4 Deiniol Jones, 3 Faao Filise, 2 Gareth Williams, 1 Gethin Jenkins.
Replacements: 16 T Rhys Thomas, 17 Sam Hobbs, 18 Gary Powell, 19 Scott Morgan, 20 Sam Warburton, 21 Richie Rees, 22 Ceri Sweeney, 23 Dafydd Hewitt.

Toulouse: 15 Maxime Medard, 14 Vincent Clerc, 13 Florian Fritz, 12 Yannick Jauzion, 11 Cedric Heymans, 10 Fred Michalak, 9 Nicolas Bezy, 8 Shaun Sowerby, 7 Louis Picamoles, 6 Thierry Dusautoir (capt), 5 Patricio Albacete, 4 Romain Millo-Chluski, 3 Census Johnston, 2 William Servat, 1 Yohan Montes.
Replacements: 16 Virgil Lacombe, 17 Daan Human, 18 Jean-Baptiste Poux, 19 Gregory Lamboley, 20 Yoann Maestri, 21 Jean Bouilhou, 22 Clement Poitrenaud, 23 Yves Donguy.

Date: Saturday, 12 December
Venue: Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff
Kick-off: 15:45 GMT
Referee: Peter Fitzgibbon