Cardiff Blues name side for Edinburgh encounter

There is one change in the backs with Richard Smith coming in at centre for Dafydd Hewitt, who suffered a broken checkbone in last Friday's match against Leinster.

The backrow sees Robin Copeland start at Number 8 and joined by Thomas Young at openside and Josh Navidi, who returns from the Wales squad, at blindside.

Michael Paterson moves to the second row and packs down with James Down. Fau Filise moves to the loose head, with Marc Breeze starting at hooker and Scott Andrews, who also returns from the Wales squad, also starting in the front row.

Speaking of the match Cardiff Blues Director of Rugby Phil Davies said,

"The Six Nations is obviously a big part of the rugby season so you know that you will have these periods when you will be without your international players.

"You know they are coming so you have to plan for them.

"We've made a lot of progress as a squad and this is an opportunity for us up in Scotland. There is a group of men who want to win for the region.

"Last weekend we played some good rugby but lost ourselves for 15 minutes, which was disappointing, and cost us. We're not gaining consistency in performances and therefore not getting consistent results.

"We've been developing our game this week and putting things in place we'd like to see on Friday night. If we perform well we can get the win.

"We have three league matches in February where we want to get wins and climb the league then a break where we can work on conditioning and so on."

Edinburgh v Cardiff Blues
Friday 15 February 7.30pm kick off

15) Jason Tovey 14) Owen Williams 13) Richard Smith 12) Gavin Evans (c) 11) Harry Robinson 10) Rhys Patchell 9) Lewis Jones

8) Robin Copeland 7) Thomas Young 6) Josh Navidi 5) James Down 4) Michael Paterson 3) Scott Andrews 2) Marc Breeze 1) Taufa'ao Filise

16) Kristian Dacey 17) Sam Hobbs 18) Benoit Bourrust 19) Lou Reed 20) Andries Pretorius 21) Alex Walker 22) Gareth Davies 23) Chris Czekaj

Not available for selection:

Dafydd Hewitt- Fractured cheeckbone, back mid March
Andi Kyriacou- Neck operation, return in April
Cory Hill- Knee injury, return in early March
Dan Fish- Suffered shoulder nerve palsy in match against Zebre, return mid March
Tom James- Fractured sesamoid (big toe) return in late February
Jake Copper-Woolley- right knee ACL injury, return mid March
Tom Davies- ACL knee reconstruction, back in April
Tom Williams- Shoulder dislocation, back in May