Ulster team named for Cardiff Blues Away

Commenting on the fixture, Ulster Coach Brian McLaughlin said: "It's a big challenge at Cardiff, especially after the very disappointing display up at Scarlets. We're really looking forward to getting ourselves back on track and getting ourselves moving in the right direction.

"We started quite well against the Scarlets, but we just made too many simple schoolboy errors. We put ourselves under ferocious pressure from the amount of errors we made, the soft points we gave away and the lack of discipline with regard to the referee.

"The team all sat down last Friday, which was the first time we were all back together after the internationals although we were missing Paddy, Rory and Stephen. We sat down and had a good chat about the Scarlets game, we went through the review of the game and there were a few home truths, there's no doubt about that. After that hopefully we'll see a much more focused and more determined performance this week.

"We've had two good training sessions so far this week, we had a good session on Monday. We got everybody back in on Tuesday and we had a good attack session on Tuesday morning. We're building up nicely and we just hope we can go to Cardiff and put up a display that we're proud of.

"This is the first time since Bath we've had everybody available, so we're looking forward to getting out here in Cardiff and showing how good a team we really are."

The pack sees Rory Best return as hooker, with Nigel Brady moving to the bench. Dan Tuohy steps into the number 4 shirt, in place of Ed O'Donoghue, who starts the game as a replacement, with Stephen Ferris back at blindside.

In the backs; Simon Danielli replaces Timoci Nagusa on the wing. Paul Marshall starts at scrumhalf, with Niall O'Connor at outhalf.

Chris Henry will once again captain the team.

Ulster Team
(1-8) Tom Court, Rory Best, Brendan Botha, Dan Tuohy, Ryan Caldwell, Stephen Ferris, David Pollock, Chris Henry (Capt)

(9-15) Paul Marshall, Niall O'Connor, Simon Danielli, Paddy Wallace, Darren Cave, Andrew Trimble, Jamie Smith

Replacements
(16-22) Nigel Brady, Declan Fitzpatrick, Ed O'Donoghue, Robbie Diack, Michael Heaney, Ian Humphreys, Timoci Nagusa

Not considered due to injury: Justin Fitzpatrick, Matt McCullough, Cillian Willis, Ian Porter, Adam Macklin, Bryn Cunningham, Willie Faloon.

Ulster head into the game two points clear of the Blues, who currently occupy 8th position on the league table, with Ulster residing in 7th place. After Friday, the Blues will then travel to Ravenhill, for the return leg on Saturday 3rd April, kick off 7.30pm.