Blues Team for Biarritz

By Andrew Collins
December 4 2008

Nicky Robinson has successfully come through a late fitness test to be named among the starting XV for Friday night’s 8pm kick off against Biarritz in the third round of the Heineken Cup. However, there’s bad news for Ritchie Rees, who is declared unfit for the match.

Jamie Roberts and Ritchie Rees are the only casualties ahead of tomorrow night's Arms Park showdown with the French giants, with Nicky Robinson and Tom Shanklin both overcoming injuries last weekend to be fit in time.

It's pretty much as expected for Dai Young's Blues, all except for the wing berth, where Gareth Thomas gets in ahead of youngster Tom James, while returning Welsh international try scorer, Leigh Halfpenny, gets a the other wing position.

Jason Spice accompanies Nicky Robinson at half back, despite the Kiwi having a woeful match in last weeks 28-0 away loss to Glasgow, Sweeney is dropped at centre for Tom Shanklin, accompanied by Jamie Robinson in the absence of namesake Roberts.

Blair is, of course, at full back, with James, Sweeney and Allinson available as cover from the bench.

Up front, Gethin Jenkins returns to a Blues front row containing Gareth Williams and Gary Powell, Rhys Thomas and Felise on the bench, while captain Tito continues his strong partnership with Deiniol Jones.

In the back row, the Blues get two Wales returnees in the shape of Martyn Williams and Andy Powell, Maama Molitika taking the flanker role. Here, Scott Morgan and Robin Sowden-Taylor make up the replacements.

Being one of only two teams to have a full 10 points from the opening two matches, Dai Young knows that it's now in our own hands, he told BBC Sport,

"It is a massive period for us. This time last year we picked up a bonus point at Paris and won with a bonus point at home. It changed our season. If we can do something similar this time, we'll put ourselves in a great situation. It's important we keep the momentum going. If we can get back-to-back wins here, we'd like to think you can take it as read we'll beat Calvisano - otherwise you don't deserve to go through, then it's pretty immaterial what happens at Gloucester. It's a massive double header for us - we can either take massive strides in this tournament or we can put ourselves under a lot of pressure."

Kiwi full back, Ben Blair also spoke out in the week with his optimism for the Welsh national side, as well as this weekend's huge Heineken showdown,

"I guess part of me is turning into a Welsh fan! With guys like Gethin, Martyn, Tom and Jamie in the side it's just good to see them doing well. When you are playing with them, you want them to do well and so far they have done really well. I think Wales can hold their heads up high. If they can keep developing young players, like what has happened with Jamie Roberts and Leigh Halfpenny, then I think they will be a strong side for some time to come."

As for Bairritz, Blair is under no illusions how hard the match will be,

"We've made a really good start to this season's tournament. Two maximum point victories is as good as it gets and the win against Gloucester was probably one of our best performances for a number of years. The aim for us now has to be two from two against Biarritz which would put us in a good position when we have to go to Kingsholm in January. That said, top French sides are always dangerous and Biarritz went all the way to the 2006 Heineken Cup final, while we know a fair bit about their key players like Dimitri Yachvili, Jerome Thion and Damien Traille. It's great to be two from two, but these are really huge weeks for us and the Biarritz games have been at the back of our minds for a fair time now."

Blues Squad for Biarritz;

B Blair; L Halfpenny, J Robinson, T Shanklin, G Thomas; N Robinson, J Spice; G Jenkins, G Williams, G Powell, D Jones, P Tito [capt], M Molitika, M Williams, A Powell.

F Filise, T Thomas, S Morgan, R Sowden-Taylor, D Allinson, C Sweeney, T James.