Cardiff look for vital win

Cardiff Blues v Ulster:IT'S THE first leg of a Magners League double header between the teams that will see the Blues travel to Ravenhill tomorrow week. Given their immediate proximity to each other in the table and the Welsh side's desire to guarantee European rugby next season there's plenty at stake despite the fact neither will realistically make the end-of-season play-offs.

Cardiff’s New Zealand-born number eight Xavier Rush will be trying to put the fact he’ll be joining Ulster during the summer to the back of his mind for the next week or so. The Irish province has announced a strong side with coach Brian McLaughlin including Stephen Ferris and Rory Best, both of whom played for Ireland at Croke Park last weekend.

Paddy Wallace also missed the defeat to the Scarlets as did Dan Tuohy and Simon Danielli, all of whom return. Scrumhalf Isaac Boss is a notable absentee.

McLaughlin said: “We’re really looking forward to getting ourselves back on track and getting ourselves moving in the right direction. We started quite well against the Scarlets, but we just made too many simple, schoolboy errors. We put ourselves under ferocious pressure from the amount of errors we made, the soft points we gave away and the lack of discipline with regard to the referee.

“The team all sat down last Friday and had a good chat about the Scarlets game. We went through the review of the game and there were a few home truths, there’s no doubt about that.

“We’re building up nicely and we just hope we can go to Cardiff and put up a display that we’re proud of. This is the first time since Bath we’ve had everybody available, so we’re looking forward to getting out here in Cardiff and showing how good a team we really are.”

Six internationals – Leigh Halfpenny, Tom Shanklin, Tom James, Richie Rees, Martyn Williams and Gethin Jenkins – return while centre Jamie Roberts and flanker Sam Warburton are rested. The Blues boast a good record against Ulster having won their last five encounters and given they are at home and desperately striving for a final push towards European qualification, it could be enough to see them forge a narrow victory.

CARDIFF BLUES:B Blair; L Halfpenny, T Shanklin, C Laulala, T James; C Sweeney, R Rees; G Jenkins, T Rhys Thomas, T Filise; S Morgan, P Tito; A Powell, M Williams, X Rush. Replacements: R Williams, S Andrews, A Pretorius, M Molitika, G Cooper, S Norton Knight/D Flanagan, D Hewitt.

ULSTER:J Smith; A Trimble, D Cave, P Wallace, S Danielli; N O'Connor, P Marshall; T Court, R Best, BJ Botha; D Tuohy, R Caldwell; S Ferris, D Pollack, C Henry (capt). Replacements: N Brady, D Fitzpatrick, E O'Donoghue, R Diack, M Heaney, I Humphreys, T Nagusa.

Referee:N Patterson (Scotland).

Last meeting (April 2009):At Ravenhill – Ulster 9 Cardiff 11.

Leading points scorers:Cardiff – Ben Blair 107. Ulster – Ian Humphreys 98.

Leading try scorers:Cardiff – Tom James 5. Ulster – Simon Danielli 5.

Verdict:Cardiff to win.