Cardiff Blues Director of Rugby David Young has selected the following twenty two players ahead of their crunch Heineken cup match against Harlequins on Friday, 11 January, 8.00pm kick off at Cardiff Arms Park.
With Duane Goodfield suffering a slight injury to his shoulder in training, Andy Powell suffering with flu and Tom James also not recovered from a throat and kidney infection, Young had only twenty five fit players to choose from.
Speaking ahead of the match he said, “I think this is the first season we’ve had a realistic opportunity of reaching the last eight for a number of years. There’s only one reason we haven’t before and that’s because we haven’t been good enough.”
“However, we’ve compiled a squad which is very competitive and I think we’ve shocked a few people that we are in this position. What we have to do is keep our squad fit for both games, as we are a bit stretched, and take our opportunities. It’s not an easy path, we still have a lot to do, but we feel are capable of doing it,” added Young
Nearly 9,000 tickets have been sold for the match and the Blues will be hoping for a bumper crowd for one of the biggest home games of recent seasons. Tickets are available online at www.cardiffblues.com or by calling the ticket office on 029 2030 2030
15 Ben Blair
14 Jamie Roberts
13 Tom Shanklin
12 Dafydd Hewitt
11 Gareth Thomas
10 Nick Macleod
9 Jason Spice
8 Xavier Rush (c)
7 Martyn Williams
6 Maama Molitika
5 Paul Tito
4 Deiniol Jones
3 Tauf’au Filise
2 Gareth Williams
1 Gethin Jenkins
16 John Yapp
17 T. Rhys Thomas
18 Scott Morgan
19 Mark Lewis
20 Richie Rees
21 Rhys Jones
22 Jamie Robinson