Cardiff travel to the south of France with the aim toppling an unconvincing Toulouse side which has come under much criticism this season. The Blues registered a 15-9 win at the Cardiff City Stadium on Saturday in a dire game between two poor sides, but getting the result at the home of the rugby ‘galapticos' is another story entirely.

Sale's bonus point win over Harlequins last weekend means the group is now a three horse race, with Cardiff's narrow loss in Manchester possibly coming back to haunt them.

But an away victory against Toulouse would well and truly put the Welsh region in a prime spot to qualify from the incredibly tough pool.

Casey Laulala was unable to recover from a hamstring strain suffered just over a week ago, meaning he must wait until at least 2010 for his Heineken Cup bow, while Tom James joins the injury list with a groin injury.

Also unavailable are Maama Molitika, who expects to miss the remainder of the season, John yapp, who also faces a long lay-off and Bradley Davies who hopes to return over the festive period.

Fortunately however, Gareth Williams, Tom Shanklin and Deiniol Jones are all fit and included in the starting XV.

Dai Young knows his side face a tough test against Toulouse, but last year's gritty 10-6 win in Biarritz means they travel with confidence.

"There are still big areas that we can improve on and there's no reason why we shouldn't go out to France with a lot of confidence and belief. The approach will be similar but it's up to us to dominate the game, it's up to us to enforce our game plan onto them. We've got to have that defensive appetite exactly the same. We need to be more ruthless and clinical and when we get opportunities we've got to take them."

Ben Blair; Leigh Halfpenny, Tom Shanklin, Jamie Roberts, Richard Mustoe; Sam Norton-Knight, Gareth Cooper; Gethin Jenkins, Gareth Williams, Taufa'ao Filise, Deiniol Jones, Paul Tito (capt), Andy Powell, Martyn Williams, Xavier Rush.

T Rhys Thomas, Sam Hobbs, Gary Powell, Scott Morgan, Sam Warburton, Richie Rees, Ceri Sweeney, Gareth Thomas.

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