Ulster looking for double to give Cardiff the blues

RUGBY:THAT THIS game falls in the midst of the Six Nations Championship, thereby denying both sides front-line personnel, in no way diminishes the importance of this match between two in-form teams.

Ulster have won four of their last five matches in all competitions, while the Blues have won the same number on the bounce including last weekend’s hard-fought victory over Leinster. Both teams harbour the ambition of making the play-offs and at this point in the season, when aspirants collide, an eight or 10-point swing is in the offing.

Brian McLaughlin has a number of changes in personnel and one positional switch from the victory over the Scarlets. Luke Marshall replaces Paddy Wallace in the centre while a fit-again Ian Humphreys (shoulder) replaces Paddy Jackson. There are two alterations in the pack with Bryan Young and Willie Faloon taking over from Tom Court and TJ Anderson respectively.

Ulster ended a seven-game losing sequence to tonight’s opponents in round eight of this season’s campaign, a fine away victory, and will be hoping to complete a double over the Blues for first time since 2006.

Cardiff coach Dai Young is a Ravenhill fan and conceded that he’s looking forward to tonight’s encounter. “I think we have been quite successful over in Ravenhill in recent years so we know what it takes to win.

“It’s always a place where I like going. There’s a great atmosphere, the crowd are very vocal, it’s very intense and it gets the hairs on the back of your neck on end. But there’s nothing better than coming away with a win, as very few teams do it. Ulster are a better team and a better squad than they have been over the last two seasons, so we are going to have to be somewhere near our best.”

The visitors are discommoded to a greater extent in personnel by this weekend’s Six Nations matches but, as they showed against Leinster, they can be hard-nosed and gritty.

The primary challenge for the home side will be to provide a platform for what is a young and talented backline. Craig Gilroy and Luke Marshall are threatening to be not so much the future as the present, while Nevin Spence has been consistently excellent. Ulster will be hoping that they won’t require a repeat of Ruan Pienaar’s wonderful late intervention that sealed their win over the Scarlets. They should have a little bit too much for the visitors.

ULSTER: A D’Arcy; A Trimble, N Spence, L Marshall, C Gilroy; I Humphreys, R Pienaar; B Young, A Kyriacou, D Fitzpatrick; J Muller (capt), T Barker; C Henry, W Faloon, P Wannenburg. Replacements: N Brady, P McAllister, J Cronin, R Caldwell, TJ Anderson, P Marshall, I Whitten, T Seymour.

CARDIFF: D Fish; R Mustoe, G Evans, D Hewitt, T James; C Sweeney, R Downes; T Filise, T Rhys Thomas, S Andrews; D Jones, P Tito (capt); A Pretorious, M Williams, X Rush. Replacements: G Williams, N Trevett, S Hobbs, B White, M Molitika, T Slater, G Davies, J Loxton.

Referee: James Jones (Wales).