Cardiff v Gloucester: Teams

Cardiff Blues have made four changes to their starting XV for the LV Cup semi-final against Gloucester at Cardiff City Stadium.

Dafydd Hewitt starts at inside centre in place of Tom Shanklin, who is on Wales duty, while forward Scott Andrews steps in for the injured Gary Powell.

Ben White takes over from Sam Warburton, who is also away with Wales, while Andy Powell is named at blindside as Maama Moltika drops to the bench.

Blues director of rugby Dai Young admits his selection has been limited by the amount of players unavailable for the clash.
Massive game

"We've got 22 players to pick 22 from so we can't rest people or change many," said Young.

"This is a massive game for us that we'd love to win and put ourselves in the final but we know it's a huge challenge against a full strength Gloucester team.

"They've got very few withdrawals and we'll probably have 8 or 9 unavailable to us.

"We're looking forward to the match. It's a massive challenge for us but a game where we'll have to perform much better than we did against Leinster last weekend."

Gloucester, meanwhile, have lost Marco Bortolami, Rory Lawson, Scott Lawson and Gareth Delve to international duty, with Olly Morgan joining Dave Attwood, Luke Narraway and Greg Somerville on the sidelines.

Half-backs Andy Williams and Tim Taylor are also ruled out with injuries sustained at London Wasps last weekend, with Freddie Burns set to take over at full-back and Dave Lewis returning at scrum-half.

Paul Doran-Jones steps in at tight-head, while a reshuffled back row sees Peter Buxton on the blindside and Jake Boer in the number eight jersey.

Effective

Cherry and Whites head coach Bryan Redpath is expecting tough competition from Blues, regardless of their own selection woes.

"Cardiff have been a pretty effective side over the past few years and I think that last season was probably their best season for a long, long time," said Redpath.

"Even with several internationals away, they've still got a very good squad. It's a very big challenge for us. It's a semi-final, it's a one off game. It isn't four points at stake, it's win or lose."

"But, we've got a game to play no matter whoever takes the pitch for them. Our focus will be on the ones who are playing and not the ones who are missing. They'll still have a lot of good players in their side."

Cardiff Blues: 15 Ben Blair, 14 Tom James, 13 Casey Laulala, 12 Dafydd Hewitt, 11 Chris Czekaj, 10 Ceri Sweeney, 9 Gareth Cooper, 1 Faao Filise, 2 T Rhys Thomas, 3 Scott Andrews, 4 Scott Morgan, 5 Paul Tito (c), 6 Andy Powell, 7 Ben White, 8 Xavier Rush.

Replacements: 16 Huw Dowden, 17 Ian George, 18 Nathan Trevett, 19 Andries Petorius, 20 Maama Molitika, 21 Darren Allinson, 22 Sam Norton-Knight.

Gloucester: 15 Freddie Burns, 14 James Simpson-Daniel, 13 Mike Tindall (c), 12 Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu, 11 Lesley Vainikolo, 10 Nicky Robinson, 9 Dave Lewis, 1 Nick Wood, 2 Olivier Azam, 3 Paul Doran-Jones, 4 Will James, 5 Alex Brown, 6 Peter Buxton, 7 Akapusi Qera, 8 Jake Boer.

Replacements: 16 Darren Dawidiuk, 17 Rupert Harden/Alasdair Dickinson, 18 Pierre Capdevielle, 19 Adam Eustace, 20 Andrew Hazell, 21 Jordi Pasqualin, 22 Tim Molenaar, 23 Tom Voyce.