Glasgow v Cardiff: Teams
Cardiff Blues have named a strong side to face table-toppers Glasgow Warriors on Friday night.
Last Updated: 18/02/10 2:40pm
Cardiff Blues will attempt to avenge their poor record at Firhill when they face table-toppers Glasgow in Friday's Magners League fixture.
The Warriors are currently unbeaten in their last six game in the competition since September while the Blues have won their last four matches in all competitions.
Dai Young's side have been boosted by the return of Tom Shanklin, Gareth Cooper, Deiniol Jones and Tom James from the Wales squad while Andy Powell does not feature, as the Blues never intended to use him for this match.
Cardiff have also been hampered by injuries to Gavin Evans (shoulder), Richard Mustoe (groin) Gareth Thomas (illness) and Robin Sowden-Taylor (Achilles), and face a team that have won three of their last four clashes with the Blues.
"We haven't got a very good record up there and we always find it a very difficult place to win," said boss Young.
"I wouldn't have thought our arch enemy, and hopefully new found hero next season, Dan Parks will be playing.
Dramatic
"He's really caused us problems every time we've played up there but they've got a strong squad, and it's never an easy place to play as our record suggests.
"It's a key game for us and we've got to look at picking up points in every game now. There are only seven games left so every match is massively important.
"We've lost a number of players, and at the minute we've lost 45 per cent of our squad to international duty.
"If you look at our squad we're only carrying 38-40 players, so when you lose 13 of them and then another 3 on U20's duty we're without about 45 per cent of our squad.
"It is frustrating, but at the end of the day that's something you've got to plan for and we're lucky that we haven't got many more injuries than we've got, because we'd really be struggling to put a team together for such an important game."
Meanwhile, three of Scotland's current Six Nations squad were named in Glasgow's side.
Centre Max Evans and lock Richie Gray, who featured in their country's opening two Six Nations games against France and Wales, and prop Moray Low, who started the former match, have been given permission to play for their club during the first of the tournament's fallow weeks.
But none of the Warriors players who started Saturday's dramatic defeat at the Millennium Stadium have been selected by head coach Sean Lineen.
Thom Evans is out for the season following neck surgery, while Chris Cusiter, Dan Parks, captain Alastair Kellock, and back-row trio Kelly Brown, John Barclay and Johnnie Beattie are all rested.
There was a boost for the Warriors with the news loose forward Richie Vernon - who made his Scotland debut during the autumn internationals - had recovered from glandular fever and will start Friday's match.
Quality
Vernon was named at number eight alongside Heriot's and national academy flanker Chris Fusaro, who will make his first start for the Warriors.
"To get Richie back is fantastic. He's a quality player and is desperate to play and that's what you want," said Lineen.
"There are some guys who err on the side of caution whereas Richie came up and said, 'I want to play'."
The team will be captained by scrum-half Mark McMillan in the absence of Kellock.
"Mark wears his heart on his sleeve. I think he's a great lad and you'll certainly hear him out there tomorrow night. He's done a great job for us all season," added Lineen.
Cardiff currently trail Magners League leaders Glasgow by 12 points but Lineen said: "Cardiff are a tough team.
"You look at where they are in the league, it doesn't do the quality of their squad justice and they're going to come at us all guns blazing."
Glasgow will be without Rob Dewey, who could miss the rest of the season after fracturing a hand in Gael Force's British and Irish Cup defeat at Newport Gwent Dragons last weekend.
Glasgow: 15 Bernardo Stortoni 14 Hefin O'Hare, 13 Max Evans, 12 Peter Horne, 11 DTH van der Merwe, 10 Ruaridh Jackson, 9 Mark McMillan (c), 8 Richie Vernon, 7 Chris Fusaro, 6 James Eddie , 5 Richie Gray, 4 Tim Barker, 3 Moray Low, 2 Dougie Hall, 1 Jon Welsh.
Replacements: 16 Fergus Thomson, 17 Kevin Tkachuk, 18 Dan Turner, 19 Paul Burke, 20 Colin Gregor, 21 Alex Dunbar, 22 Peter Murchie.
Cardiff Blues: 15 Ben Blair, 14 Tom James, 13 Casey Laulala, 12 Tom Shanklin, 11 Chris Czekaj, 10 Ceri Sweeney, 9 Gareth Cooper, 8 Xavier Rush, 7 Ben White, 6 Maama Molitika, 5 Paul Tito (capt), 4 Deiniol Jones, 3 Gary Powell, 2 T Rhys Thomas, 1 Taufa'ao Filise.
Replacements: 16 Huw Dowden, 17 Scott Andrews, 18 Scott Morgan, 19 Andries Pretorius, 20 Darren Allinson, 21 Sam Norton-Knight, 22 Dafydd Hewitt.