Dai Young makes several changes from the side that were outplayed against Northampton just a week ago, with re-calls for Ben Blair and Daf Hewitt, neither of whom featured in either of the two pre-season matches.

Blair's return see's Chris Czekaj move from full back to wing, while Hewitt comes in for Daf James in the centre.

Up front, Darren Morris receives his first Cardiff Blues appearance, starting with Garey Powell and Gareth Williams in the front row. Paul Tito captains the side from lock, joined by Bradley Davies - one of few players who play well in pre-season.

A strong back row completes the line up, Maama Molitika is ever-present at 6, Sowden-Taylor is preferred to Warburton in the absence of Martyn Williams and Xavier Rush starts at number 8.

Head coach, Young, is hoping for a big start of the season, and wants to develop a winning mentality at the Cardiff City Stadium,

"Edinburgh are a very good squad and are not far off the Scottish national team when you look at them on paper. They play a very expansive type of rugby, they are always looking to offload and keep the ball moving. "We want to develop a fortress mentality which we had at the Arms Park. Nobody relished coming to the Arms Park and very few teams won there."

Kick off is 19.05 on Friday night, see the Cardiff Blues web site for travel information.

Ben Blair; Leigh Halfpenny, Gareth Thomas, Dafydd Hewitt, Chris Czekaj; Sam Norton-Knight, Gareth Cooper; Xavier Rush, Robin Sowden-Taylor, Maama Molitika, Paul Tito (capt), Bradley Davies, Gary Powell, Gareth Williams, Darren Morris.

Taufa'ao Filise, T Rhys Thomas, Scott Morgan, Sam Warburton, Richie Rees, Ceri Sweeney, Dafydd James.

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