Blues v Castres: Teams

Scotland international Dan Parks returns to the Cardiff Blues line-up for the visit of Castres in the Heineken Cup.

Parks will wear the No.10 jersey as one of a number of changes made by director of rugby Dai Young.

Casey Laulala and Richard Mustoe also come into the backs, with Tom Shanklin ruled out and Tom James dropping to the bench.

Young has made four changes to his pack, with Maama Molitika, Martyn Williams, Deiniol Jones and Fau Filise coming into the side. The injury to Gethin Jenkins also means John Yapp switches to loosehead.

"We've worked hard over the last couple of years to be one of the top seeds in the Heineken Cup and we have to make sure that if we do go out of the competition, we go out fighting," said Young.

"It shouldn't be a big job to lift the players as they have enough personal pride to put in a strong performance. It is a mind set that they all should have.

Problems

"Certainly from our point of view the first thing we have to get right is the scrum and we have been working tirelessly to improve this area. That's an area where they caused us problems over in France.

"We have to make sure we play the game in the right areas, but that doesn't mean kicking the leather off the ball, we have to carry into the right areas, and put them under pressure when we have possession."

Castres dropped Chris Masoe, Romain Teulet and Joe Tekori to the bench for a game they must win if they are to top the pool.

Cardiff Blues: 15 Chris Czekaj, 14 Leigh Halfpenny, 13 Casey Laulala, 12 Jamie Roberts, 11 Richard Mustoe, 10 Dan Parks, 9 Tom Slater, 8 Maama Molitika, 7 Martyn Williams, 6 Andries Pretorius, 5 Paul Tito (c), 4 Deiniol Jones, 3 Tafa'ao Filise, 2 T Rhys Thomas, 1 John Yapp.
Replacements: 16 Gareth Williams, 17 Scott Andrews, 18 Sam Hobbs, 19 Bradley Davies, 20 Ben White, 21 Ceri Sweeney, 22 Dafydd Hewitt, 23 Tom James.

Castres: 15 Florian Denos, 14 Matthieu Nicolas, 13 Romain Cabannes, 12 Seremaia Bai, 11 Marc Andreu, 10 Cameron McIntyre, 9 Alexandre Albouy, 8 Jannie Bornman, 7 Steve Malonga, 6 Gambo Adamou, 5 Kirill Kulemin, 4 Matthias Rolland, 3 Daniel Saayman, 2 Mathieu Bonello, 1 Yannick Forestier.
Replacements: 16 Akvsenti Giorgadze, 17 Anton Peikrishvili, 18 Luc Ducalcon, 19 Joe Tekori, 20 Chris Masoe, 21 Romain Teulet, 22 Pierre Bernard, 23 Yoan Audrin.