The side has been boosted with flanker Sam Warburton and scrum half Gareth Cooper being released by the Welsh camp for the clash.
Speaking ahead of the match Cardiff Blues Director of Rugby David Young said, “It’s very rare that we get the opportunity to play an international team and this is obviously the first time since we became a region, so we have all been looking forward to the match for a number of weeks now.”
“The physicality of the match will be a step up for us, but in the later stages of the Heineken Cup, if you look across the teams that we have played against, they have been pretty much full international teams.”
“So it is nothing that the players will be totally alien to. It may be obvious to say, but our opponents have looked typically Australian, in so far as they are very efficient at set piece time, very effective in the contact area with some good running lines.”
“They keep the ball off the ground as much as they can and like to throw it around. They play an expansive game that we all know Australia is renowned for.”
“I’ve had the opportunity of coaching against them before with the Barbarians but if I’m being honest it wasn’t a great experience.”
“For the first fifteen minutes we were in the game but after that it was one-way-traffic. A lot of tries they scored were from individual brilliance but they also had the attitude across the board that everyone wanted to get their hands on the ball and play.
“That is something we have to be mindful of – they are happy to attack from anywhere and anyone of their players is comfortable with ball in hand and every one of them will look to play rugby.”
“We can’t switch off as they will always look to attack which is great for the spectator but certainly going to test us.”
Tickets for the match are priced from £5 for juniors, £10 for students and £20 for adults. The Blues also have family tickets available, 2 adults & 2 children, for only £40.
Ticket Office 0845 345 1400 or www.cardiffblues.com/tickets
Cardiff Blues 15 Ben Blair 14 Richard Mustoe 13 Gareth Thomas 12 Dafydd Hewitt 11 Chris Czekaj 10 Sam Norton-Knight 9 Gareth Cooper; 8 Xavier Rush (c) 7 Ben White 6 Sam Warburton 5 Scott Morgan 4 Deiniol Jones 3 Gary Powell 2 Gareth Williams 1 Taufa’au Filise
Replacements:16 T Rhys Thomas 17 Sam Hobbs 18 Paul Tito 19 Robin Sowden Taylor 20 Richie Rees 21 Ceri Sweeney 22 Gavin Evans
