Cardiff Blues name side for final home match of the season

The non-televised match will kick off at the Arms Park at 2.30pm and the Blues will be looking to give a good send off to two great Cardiff Blues servants.

A product of the Pontypridd Youth Team, Ceri Sweeney made his debut for Wales against England in the Six Nations Championship in 2003, and played in three Rugby World Cup games later that year. In 2008 Ceri joined the Cardiff Blues from Newport Gwent Dragons having previously played for Celtic Warriors. He has gone on to play 110 games for the region including the EDF Cup and Amlin Cup finals.

Jamie Roberts was educated at Ysgol Gyfun Glantaf and studied medicine at the University of Wales, Cardiff. He gets his finals results on Monday. Jamie made his Cardiff Blues debut on the wing in August 2007 when the Blues notched up a 17-15 victory. He has since gone on to make 84 appearances for the Blues and was the British and Irish Lions Man of the Series for their 2009 tour of South Africa.

Speaking of the departing players Cardiff Blues Director of Rugby Phil Davies said,

"Their support is hugely appreciated by us all and hopefully this weekend will be a good send off for Ceri, Tom and Jamie.
"They have been great servants to the region and hopefully there will be a big crowd there to send these boys off and to finish our home campaign in a positive light."

Cardiff Blues will be looking to get back to winning ways having slipped to four successive RaboDirect PRO12 defeats and have not lost five in a row in the competition in the same season since 2004/05.

Zebre are still looking for that elusive first win in the RaboDirect PRO12, but are getting ever closer having claimed three losing bonus points in their last four games.

Cardiff Blues won 14-7 when the two sides met in Italy earlier in the season, speaking of that match Phil Davies said,

"When we played Zebre earlier in the season, the boys played very well and there were some great passages of play but a bit of frustration at times.

"We didn't really capitalise and nail down the dominance we had in that game and we felt the scoreline didn't really reflect the possession we had.

"This weekend we have to win the game and win it well. We have to be direct early on, keep battling away at their defensive line and look to try and blow them away.

"It is not going to be easy as Zebre are a very physical team, a very resilient team and they keep coming and coming. If we don't perform to the level we can do, it could be tough for us.

"However, if we perform to the level we know we are capable of and build on that Ospreys performance, I am confident we will get a satisfying win."

Cardiff Blues 15 Leigh Halfpenny 14 Owen Williams 13 Gavin Evans (c)12 Jamie Roberts 11 Harry Robinson 10 Rhys Patchell 9 Lewis Jones

8 Robin Copeland 7 Sam Warburton 6 Michael Paterson 5 Filo Paulo 4 Lou Reed 3 Scott Andrews 2 Marc Breeze 1 Taufa'ao Filise

16 Kristian Dacey 17 Thomas Davies 18 Benoit Bourrust 19 James Down 20 Luke Hamilton 21 Alex Walker 22 Ceri Sweeney 23 Gareth Davies

Referee: Lloyd Linton
Assistant Referees: Tim Hayes & Julian Smith