Blues Bosses Want Winning Start Tonight
Martyn Williams Starts
By Andrew Collins
September 2 2011
New Blues coaches Gareth Baber and Justin Burnell will be looking to start their tenure with a victory in tonights opening RaboDirect Pro 12 against Edinburgh.
The Blues will kick off the season missing 10 first team players, 8 of whom are involved with the World Cup, while Xavier Rush and Ben Blair are both injured.
However despite this, the coaches are able to announce a strong team selection, including Martyn Williams, Richie Rees and last years Player of the Season Andrais Pretorius.
Speaking ahead of the match, Burnell said,
"It's going to work in two ways, it's going to affect team performance because some of our better players will be at the World Cup, but on the other hand it gives us the opportunity to look at our younger players and perhaps some other players that have been vying to get that first team spot."
15. Chris Czekaj 14. Richard Mustoe 13. Casey Laulala 12. Gavin Evans 11. Tom James 10. Ceri Sweeney 9. Richie Rees
8. Andries Pertorius 7. Martyn Williams 6. Michael Paterson 5. Deiniol Jones 4. James Down 3. Scott Andrews 2. T Rhys Thomas ( c ) 1. Sam Hobbs
16. Rhys Williams 17. Nathan Trevett 18. Ryan Harford 19. Paul Tito 20. Maama Molitika 21. Lewis Jones 22. Gareth Davies 23. Dafydd Hewitt