Blues vs Ospreys Tonight 1905 at the Cardiff Arms Park.

The teams:

Cardiff Blues: 15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 Alex Cuthbert, 13 Richard Smith, 12 Dafydd Hewitt, 11 Harry Robinson, 10 Gareth Davies, 9 Lloyd Williams, 8 Robin Copeland, 7 Rory Watts-Jones, 6 Andries Pretorius, 5 Filo Paulo, 4 Macauley Cook, 3 Benoit Bourrust, 2 Kristian Dacey, 1 Sam Hobbs (c).
Replacements: 16 Rhys Williams, 17 Thomas Davies, 18 Scott Andrews, 19 James Down, 20 Josh Navidi, 21 Lewis Jones, 22 Gavin Evans, 23 Chris Czekaj.

Ospreys: 15 Sam Davies, 14 Hanno Dirksen, 13 Tom Isaacs, 12 Ben John, 11 Aisea Natoga, 10 Dan Biggar, 9 Tom Habberfield, 8 Joe Bearman, 7 Justin Tipuric, 6 Sam Lewis, 5 James King, 4 Alun Wyn Jones (c), 3 Adam Jones, 2 Scott Baldwin, 1 Ryan Bevington.
Replacements: 16 Matthew Dwyer, 17 Marc Thomas, 18 Dan Suter, 19 Morgan Allen, 20 Tyler Ardron, 21 Tito Tebaldi, 22 Ashley Beck, 23 Jeff Hassler.

Date: Friday, December 20
Kick-off: 19:05 GMT
Venue: Cardiff Arms Park
Referee: Jérôme Garcès (France)
Assistant referees: Rhys Thomas (Wales), Sean Brickell (Wales)
Television match official: Gareth Simmonds (Wales)

from PR.com

Andries Pretorius returns to Cardiff Blues' starting line-up as they face the Ospreys in a RaboDirect PRO12 Welsh derby at the Arms Park on Friday.

Pretorius is one of four changes for the Blues as director of rugby Phil Davies looks to build on the Heineken Cup double win over Glasgow Warriors.

Centre Dafydd Hewitt is also handed a recall, with Rhys Patchell missing the game through injury, while the return of Pretorius sees Macauley Cook move to the second-row to partner Filo Paulo.

Prop Benoit Bourrust is named alongside hooker Kristian Dacey and skipper Sam Hobbs.

Rhys Williams, Scott Andrews, Josh Navidi and Gavin Evans are all amongst the replacements.

"We face an Ospreys side that is packed full of international talent and who have impressed this season to currently lie in fifth place in the table, just two points off a play-off berth," said Davies.

"They also secured a big European scalp last week against Castres so will arrive full of confidence. We need to be ready to meet that challenge.

"We are looking to build and improve on the form that has seen us secure some important results over the last two months," he added.

"We are under no illusions as to the size of the task that awaits us, but it's an exciting way to finish 2013 at the Arms Park."

Meanwhile, the Ospreys are without hooker Richard Hibbard, second-row Ian Evans and centre duo Andrew Bishop and Ashley Beck for their return to RaboDirect PRO12 duty.

The visitors enter the derby clash on a back of a Heineken Cup victory over Castres, with head coach Steve Tandy bracing himself for a busy period in the Welsh region's calender.

"This is the first game of a busy five weeks with three big derbies followed by the final two rounds of the Heineken Cup. Christmas is a great time for rugby, with fans to come together with family and friends to watch the game," he said.

"It's about the tradition and the rivalry and it's fantastic for regional rugby in Wales that we are going to have a series of games with big crowds and great atmospheres.

"We are looking to build some momentum after showing some good signs in the games against Castres, where we started to see the boys taking what we've been doing in training onto the pitch. The win last weekend was a great result for everybody involved with the region, but there is still plenty of room for improvement. The boys have worked hard in training this week, striving to continue improving, in preparation for what will be a busy period.

"It's important that we are at our best in Cardiff in front of a big and passionate crowd. We know there'll be a large travelling support there from Ospreylia, enjoying the rivalry, and we want them to be proud of what this group is doing."

Form: Cardiff Blues' only defeat in their last five games in all tournaments was 10-31 at home to Munster in the RaboDirect PRO12 on 23rd November. The Blues have not beaten a fellow Welsh Region, excepting The Dragons, since Ospreys visited the Cardiff City Stadium on New Year's Eve 2010. Ospreys have won just two of their last five PRO12 encounters, at home to both Dragons and Zebre. Ospreys have been defeated in their last four away games in all competitions since they visited Connacht in the PRO12, on 28th September. Ospreys have won their last nine PRO12 fixtures against fellow Welsh Regions since losing 20-21 to the Dragons at Rodney Parade on 6th January 2012. The Blues have already defeated Ospreys this season in the Anglo-Welsh Cup at Liberty Stadium, but in the PRO12 have not won against their rivals since 31st December 2010.

Head Coach Steve Tandy said:

“This is the first game of a busy five weeks with three big derbies followed by the final two rounds of the Heineken Cup. Christmas is a great time for rugby, with fans to come together with family and friends to watch the game. It’s about the tradition and the rivalry and it’s fantastic for regional rugby in Wales that we are going to have a series of games with big crowds and great atmospheres.
“We are looking to build some momentum after showing some good signs in the games against Castres, where we started to see the boys taking what we’ve been doing in training onto the pitch. The win last weekend was a great result for everybody involved with the region, but there is still plenty of room for improvement. The boys have worked hard in training this week, striving to continue improving, in preparation for what will be a busy period.
“It’s important that we are at our best in Cardiff in front of a big and passionate crowd. We know there’ll be a large travelling support there from Ospreylia, enjoying the rivalry, and we want them to be proud of what this group is doing.
“If we can keep the momentum going and put in the kind of performance they expect, we’ll be in a good place before back to back games against the Scarlets. It’s always tough if you have two away games on the bounce, but we’ll be happy to bring them back to the Liberty for the second game in front of a big crowd predominantly made up of our own fans passionately supporting the cause.”
The following players were unavailable for selection through injury:
Dmitri Arhip – Achilles

Dan Baker – Shoulder

Andrew Bishop – Back

Richard Hibbard – Hand

Aaron Jarvis – Hip

Ryan Jones - Calf

Lloyd Peers - Ankle

Tom Smith – Knee

Eli Walker - Hamstring

Blues head coach Phill Davies said:

"We face an Ospreys side that is packed full of international talent and who have impressed this season to currently lie in fifth place in the table, just two points off a play-off berth.
"They also secured a big European scalp last week against Castres so will arrive full of confidence. We need to be ready to meet that challenge.
"We are looking to build and improve on the form that has seen us secure some important results over the last two months," he added.
"We are under no illusions as to the size of the task that awaits us, but it's an exciting way to finish 2013 at the Arms Park."

Any Blues fans know when Allen and Williams are due back?

6 - 0 down, the Blues were in range for a drop and they chose to keep it in hand when they weren't going anywhere. Points mean prizes!

Kristian Dacey: stupid hair, legitimate try.

Halfers doing well running wise. He's obviously wearing his boots from Murrayfield this year though.

He's out of position tonight, but fair play to Sam Davies, he knows when to play and when not to play. He has an instinctive understanding of the game.

Alun Wyn far too upright there. The try line is ground level!

AWJ's body angles are rubbish.

By the way, Robinson should never have cut inside with a hint of the try line (just before their try). Cuthbert would've gone for it.

I'm worried by how much better the Blues' defence has been since the Chief came in.

Yes it is better.

My dad thinks one of the Blues supporters might've swung for Dirksen over the barrier when he had his little flair up? I didn't see it.

Risca Rev wrote:Yes it is better.

My dad thinks one of the Blues supporters might've swung for Dirksen over the barrier when he had his little flair up? I didn't see it.

Yeah there was a swing, don't think he was near him though.

Thought it was a good game.
Dacey is starting to emerge as a good player now. It's fair to say Boroust is the best tight head at the Blues at the moment I think.
Nice to see Adam was back and putting good pressure on at the scrum, Hobbs isn't a scrummager no, but he has really gone up in my books the past few weeks.

Nice to see how Alyn Wyn, Phil Davies and Tandy handled Phil steel after the game. At the end of the day it's all about the rugby which is what they all said.   

A great night out in Cardiff. Well played Blues, I think you deserved that more than us.

Pretty gutted, we were very poor for the last 30 minutes and our kicking game was just not good enough.

It was very frustrating as I am almost certain we would have won if Patchell had started. Gareth Davies continues to prove he is not up to regional standard.

The defensive organisation and breakdown work was outstanding - the 2 things the chief is in charge of. The backs coaching is laughable, but we could have won 10 man rugby with a decent FH.

Pretorious was awful. As was Copeland, but that is rare for him.

Bourrust proved again he is our best scrummaging THP, but I bet he disappears from the teamsheet again.

Still, it is good to see that our best players are Dacey, Cook, Watts-Jones and Patchell - with an average age of about 20!

As a coach why would you go into a big derby game like this with anything other than your best available team.

Why didn't Patchell start?

bedfordwelsh wrote:As a coach why would you go into a big derby game like this with anything other than your best available team.

Why didn't Patchell start?

We did start our best available team,

Gethin, Rees, Filise, Bradley, Lou Reed, Warburton, Patchell, Allen and O.Williams are all injured

wales606 wrote:

bedfordwelsh wrote:As a coach why would you go into a big derby game like this with anything other than your best available team.

Why didn't Patchell start?

We did start our best available team,

Gethin, Rees, Filise, Bradley, Lou Reed, Warburton, Patchell, Allen and O.Williams are all injured

606,

My apologies I was convinced Patchell came off the bench towards the end