Preview: Munster v Cardiff Blues

Cardiff Blues have opted to drop Sam Norton-Knight to the replacements bench for Friday's trip to face Munster at Thomond Park.

Cardiff Blues have opted to drop Sam Norton-Knight to the replacements bench for Friday's trip to face Munster at Thomond Park.

The Welsh region's new summer signing struggled to impress against Edinburgh last weekend as the Blues went down 22-21 to Rob Moffat's side.

Director of Rugby David Young has made a total of four changes to his line-up with props Taufa'ao Filise and John Yapp, lock Deiniol Jones joining fly-half Ceri Sweeney in his starting XV.

However, the Blues boss could not hide his disappointment after watching his side begin another new campaign with a poor performance.

“The frustrating thing for me is, for season on season, we are awfully slow starters. I think last season, for the first three games we were very poor,” he said.

“You can't peak for 10 months, but we certainly want to be better.

“The attitude from the players is to work harder. A few people wrote us off at the start of last season but we cracked on and got things right.”

Meanwhile, Alan Quinlan and John Hayes will make their seasonal debuts for the Munstermen.

Hayes comes into the front row in place of Tony Buckley while Quinlan takes over from Billy Holland, both Buckley and Holland are named on the bench.

The only other change in the starting line-up from the Glasgow game sees Barry Murphy retain the number thirteen jersey, with Tom Gleeson, who he replaced in the 63rd minute last weekend in Firhill, listed among the replacements.

Quinlan declared himself: “delighted to be pulling on that Munster shirt again.

“I'm really looking forward to the game.

“Pre-season has gone really well and I feel in good shape but its a big step up from training, a game like this and particularly when it's against a quality side like Cardiff. But nevertheless I cant wait to get out on the pitch.”

Form: Reigning Magners League champions Munster tripped up in Glasgow last Friday and have now lost two of their last three matches in the Magners League. The Munstermen have won their last seven home games in all competitions since Ulster were victorious at Thomond Park Stadium on 3 January. Cardiff Blues' narrow 21-22 reversal to Edinburgh at the brand new Cardiff City Stadium made it three straight losses for the Blues. A Welsh side has not won at Thomond Park since the Dragons were the visitors on 12 March 2004, whilst the Blues have lost on each of their three previous visits to Limerick. Cardiff Blues have won on their last two trips to Ireland.

The teams:

Munster: 15 Felix Jones, 14 Doug Howlett, 13 Barry Murphy, 12 Lifeimi Mafi, 11 Denis Hurley, 10 Jeremy Manning, 9 Peter Stringer, 8 Denis Leamy, 7 Niall Ronan, 6 Alan Quinlan, 5 Donnacha Ryan, 4 Mick O'Driscoll (captain), 3 John Hayes, 2 Denis Fogarty, 1 Marcus Horan.
Replacements: 16 Damien Varley, 17 Tony Buckley, 18 Billy Holland, 19 Tommy O'Donnell, 20 Toby Morland, 21 Scott Deasy, 22 Tom Gleeson.

Cardiff Blues: 15 Ben Blair, 14 Leigh Halfpenny, 13 Gareth Thomas, 12 Dafydd Hewitt, 11 Chris Czekaj, 10 Ceri Sweeney, 9 Gareth Cooper, 8 Xavier Rush, 7 Robin Sowden-Taylor, 6 Mamma Molitika, 5 Paul Tito, 4 Deiniol Jones, 3 Taufa'ao Filise, 2 Rhys Thomas, 1 John Yapp.
Replacements: 16 Gary Powell, 17 Gareth Williams, 18 Scott Morgan, 19 Andy Powell, 20 Richie Rees, 21 Sam Norton-Knight, 22 Dafydd James.

Date: Friday, September 11
Kick-off: 19:05 BST
Venue: Thomond Park
Referee: Peter Allan (Scotland)
Assistant referees: Alan Rogan (Ireland), Mark Gargan (Ireland)
Television match official: Sean Flannery (Ireland)
Assessor: Bertie Smith (Ireland)