Dai boost as five stars make a Cardiff return
CARDIFF Rugby welcome back a quintet of Wales Six Nations squad members for their crucial United Rugby Championship encounter against Glasgow Warriors today (5.15pm).
The Blue and Blacks return to the Arms Park following three consecutive defeats on the road and are boosted by the availability of the five internationals as Dai Young makes six changes.
Four of those changes come in the pack where Rhys Carré returns alongside Kirby Myhill, while Dmitri Arhip retains his place at tight-head.
Club captain Josh Turnbull moves into the second-row, where he partners Matthew Screech, with Josh Navidi and James Ratti returning to the backrow alongside James Botham.
In the backs, Lloyd Williams and Jarrod Evans continue their half-back partnership and Willis Halaholo swaps the red of Wales for Blue and Black, alongside Ben Thomas. The only other change sees Hallam Amos preferred to Matthew Morgan at full-back.
Glasgow Warriors arrive in Cardiff in good form, on the back of a gritty victory over Scottish rivals Edinburgh and sitting third overall in the United Rugby Championship table.
Cardiff remain in the bottom half of the table, albeit with games in hand, and director of rugby is pleased to be boosted by five more of his Wales squad members for an important encounter.
Young said: “It’s great to have Carré, Dillon, Ratti, Navidi and
Willis back for what is a really important game for us back at Cardiff Arms Park.
“You always want your best players available and it gives us some more strength in depth as the season intensifies. They will all get a week off later in the season, while we still have Seb Davies, Tomos Williams and Josh Adams to come back.
“This weekend we face a really good team in Glasgow, and Danny (Wilson) is coming back here as well. He’s well known to the staff and players here so I’m sure he’ll want to come back here and get the ‘W’.
“But we’re just thrilled to be back at the Arms Park. Obviously our away performances haven’t been where we’ve wanted them to be, and certainly not to the same levels as our home performances.
“We’ve certainly had our best performances at home and our last performance here was one of our best. We want to get back to that quickly.
“It’s important that we have that 16th man again. We have a job on the field to make sure we give them something to get on the edge of their seats because they’re very important to us.”
Dillon Lewis is the fifth returning Wales international and lines up on the bench. Jamie Bhatti returns from injury to start at loosehead for Glasgow Warriors, who have six Scotland internationals returning to starting XV.
Cardiff Rugby: Hallam Amos; Jason Harries, Willis Halaholo, Ben Thomas, Theo Cabango; Jarrod
Evans, Lloyd Williams; Rhys Carré, Kirby Myhill, Dmitri Arhip, Josh Turnbull, Matthew Screech, James Botham, Josh Navidi, James Ratti. Reps: Kristian Dacey, Corey Domachowski, Dillon Lewis, Teddy Williams, Ellis Jenkins, Jamie Hill, Garyn Smith, Matthew Morgan. Glasgow Warriors: Josh McKay,= Sebastian Cancelliere, Kyle Steyn,
Sam Johnson, Cole Forbes, Ross Thompson, Ali Price, Jamie Bhatti, Fraser Brown, Zander Fagerson, Scott Cummings, Richie Gray, Ryan Wilson, Rory Darge, Jack Dempsey. Repls: Johnny Matthews, Oli Kebble, Murphy Walker, Kiran McDonald, Ally Miller, Jamie Dobie, Duncan Weir, Stafford McDowall. Referee: AJ Jacobs (SA).