Other changes to the side that struggled against a weak Sale side last weekend include Tom Shanklin for Jamie Roberts, forming a centre partnership with Jamie Robinson who also came through a late injury scare.

Jason Spice returns to the side for Ritchie Rees, and Nicky Robinson comes in for Ceri Sweeney as the half back partnership completely changes.

The highly impressive Leigh Halfpenny, who has scored 4 tries in 3 games so far this season, maintains on the wing berth, as does Wales' record cap holder, Gareth Thomas, with Ben Blair remaining at full back.

In the forwards, Gethin Jenkins returns to the front row after the embarrassing scrum performance against Sale's reserve side. His absence was all to obvious as the Cardiff scrum was wielded, twisted and collapsed against Sale's watered down pack.

Rhys Thomas remains to keep some bulk, while Gary Powell comes in for Tao' Felise. In the second row, Captain Tito is joined by his familiar lock partner, Deiniol Jones. Last season, the duo were one both rated in the top 5 of line out catchers in the Heineken Cup, despite only getting to the Quarter Finals.

The back row remains strong despite Xavier's absence, Maama Molitika, who was in the top 5 tacklers from last seasons HEC, the magnificent Martyn Williams, and recently impressive Andy Powell.

On the bench, young has opted for four forwards and three backs, Felise, gareth Williams, Scott Morgan and Robin Sowden-Taylor, with Ritchie Rees, ceri Sweeney and Jamie Roberts all hoping to make an impact from the bench.

During the week, the Blues have been cautious not to take anything for granted against the Italians, with both Dai Young and Jason Spice speaking publicly about the match.

"People underestimate how difficult it is to get out of the pool stages. The teams that go on to win it are the teams that get quite used to getting out of the pool stages and playing one-off (knock-out stage) games.In one-off games, if we've got all our best players on the field, there's no reason why we couldn't push all the way as well."

Spice echoed the words of his manager later in the week, saying,

"We're not a good enough team to start taking things for granted and we're quite good at proving that. It was good to have a kick up pants last weekend. It was a bad day at the office but hopefully it could turn into a good thing for our Heineken Cup hopes."

"It is important to start well and going away to Calvisano is a good place to start because we'll get out of our comfort zone. We are targeting to emulate our Europe performance of last season and, to be honest, we'll be disappointed if we don't do better than last year. We were disappointed with the manner of our 41-17 defeat to Toulouse in the last eight and we'd like to address that this year."

The Blues kick off at 1.35pm, and is available through Sky Sports Red Button service from 1.30pm.

Ben Blair; Leigh Halfpenny, Jamie Robinson, Tom Shanklin, Gareth Thomas; Nicky Robinson, Jason Spice; Gethin Jenkins, T Rhys Thomas, Gary Powell, Deiniol Jones, Paul Tito, Maama Molitika, Martyn Williams, Andy Powell.

Taufa'ao Filise, Gareth Williams, Scott Morgan, Robin Sowden Taylor, Richie Rees, Ceri Sweeney, Jamie Roberts.

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon

Related Articles:

• Blues win at Sale

SPORTNETWORK SPECIALS