WELCH FACES OLD FRIENDS

NEW signing Damian Welch makes his debut for Cardiff Blues against the club he left to return to Wales – Aviva Premiership champions Exeter Chiefs.

The former Scarlets lock forward will partner Wales find Seb Davies, who was capped against Tonga a couple of months ago, in the boiler-house at the Arms Park tonight (7.15pm).

Ellis Jenkins captains a Blues team showing 13 changes from the side that defeated London Scottish last weekend, lining up alongside Josh Navidi and Macauley Cook in the back-row.

Blues attack coach, Matt Sherratt maintained places were still up for grabs for next week’s Guinness PRO14 opener against Edinburgh with Exeter, who beat the Dragons last weekend, providing the platform for individuals to impress.

“The first priority for any pre-season is to prepare physically and we got 25 players some game time on Saturday at London Scottish, which was a great test for us,” he said.

“Everybody needs to get some rugby and we need to have an environment where players feel they’ve got a realistic chance of getting selected if they play well.” Cardiff Blues: M Morgan; A Cuthbert, G Smith, W Halaholo, A Summerhill; S Shingler, L Williams; R Gill, M Rees, T Filise, S Davies, D Welch, M Cook, J Navidi, E Jenkins (capt). Reps: K Myhill, C Domachowski, K Assiratti, J Down, J Turnbull, T Williams, J Evans, J Roberts, O Lane, T James, D Fish.