Connacht v Cardiff: Teams

Cardiff Blues remain without Wales stars Leigh Halfpenny, Tom Shanklin, Jamie Roberts, Andy Powell, Martyn Williams, Bradley Davies, Gethin Jenkins and John Yapp for the trip to Connacht.

Only flanker Robin Sowden-Taylor has returned for Blues duty in the Magners League as Dai Young's men make the trip to Galway Sportsground.

The Blues recorded a 58-0 victory over Connacht the last time they played but Young is not expecting a similar scoreline when they visit Ireland.

"The win against Glasgow didn't move us any further up the table but it made us realise that we have to win both our matches during the six nations period," said Young.

"I was particularly pleased with our first half performance against Glasgow and very disappointed with our second half effort.

"However, at the end of the day we came away with a bonus point win, and obviously we would have settled for that before the game.

"We looked rusty, which was to be expected during the break, but we will be going into the Conacht match with better game sense, game speed and game understanding."

"Connacht are always a difficult team to play away, as everyone knows, and something I've been banging the drum about all week is our mental toughness. It's a game we know we have to win and we should win."

Troy Nathan and David Gannon will come into the Connacht line up for the clash.

Nathan is named at full-back with Gavin Duffy reverting to inside centre for the injured Niva Ta'auso, while Gannon replaces flanker Colm Rigney.

On the bench there is a place for Johnny O'Connor, while Conor Muldoon is called in for the injured Adrian Flavin.

Connacht: 15 Troy Nathan, 14 Fionn Carr, 13 Gavin Duffy, 12 Keith Matthews, 11 Liam Bibo, 10 Ian Keatley, 9 Frank Murphy, 8 John Muldoon (c), 7 Ray Ofisa, 6 David Gannon, 5 Adrian Farley, 4 Andrew Browne, 3 Robbie Morris, 2 Sean Cronin, 1 Brett Wilkinson.
Replacements: 16 Conor Muldoon, 17 Ronan Loughney, 18 Michael Swift, 19 Johnny O'Connor, 20 Connor O'Laughlin, 21 Andrew Dunne, 22 Mel Deane.

Cardiff Blues: 15 Ben Blair, 14 Richard Mustoe, 13 Jamie Robinson, 12 Ceri Sweeney, 11 Tom James, 10 Nicky Robinson, 9 Jason Spice, 8 Xavier Rush, 7 Robin Sowden-Taylor, 6 Maama Molitika, 5 Scott Morgan, 4 Deiniol Jones, 3 Gary Powell, 2 T Rhys Thomas, 1 Rhys Gill.
Replacements: 16 Taufa'ao Filise, 17 Gareth Williams, 18 James Down, 19 Ben White, 20 Richard Rees, 21 Dai Flannigan, 22 Chris Czekaj.