Edinburgh v Cardiff Blues, Heineken Cup, January 22
Blues out to end on a high
ESPNscrum Staff
January 21, 2011
Cardiff Blues centre Jamie Roberts, Cardiff v Northampton, Heineken Cup, Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff, Wales, December 19, 2010
Jamie Roberts starts for Cardiff Blues © Getty Images
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Tournaments/Tours: Heineken Cup

Cardiff Blues travel to Scotland on Saturday to round off their underwhelming Heineken Cup campaign with a tie against Edinburgh.

The reigning Amlin Challenge Cup champions have only the slimmest hope of making that competition this time around and will likely be fighting on one front, the Magners League, come Sunday evening.

The teams met in the opening round of this year's competition, when the Blues were unconvincing 18-17 winners at the Cardiff City Stadium.

Edinburgh - Player to Watch: Nick De Luca looks set to start as Scotland's inside-centre in the Six Nations and he will get a thorough examination this weekend from the Blues' classy centre pairing.

Edinburgh - Team News: Chris Paterson starts at fly-half in place of David Blair, who is out with a virus, while Lee Jones returns on the wing in place of Jim Thompson, who shifts to fullback. Simon Webster is recalled on the opposite wing after Tim Visser failed to recover from a dead leg sustained against Northampton. In the pack, Allan Jacobsen is restored at loose-head ahead of Kyle Traynor.

Cardiff Blues - Player to Watch: With Wales centres seemingly dropping like flies, all eyes will be on Jamie Roberts as he looks to safely negotiate another game on his comeback trail.

Cardiff Blues - Team News: Dai Young has kept faith with a strong side, with Scotland fly-half Dan Parks set to come up against a number of familiar faces. Martyn Williams starts at openside, having been told this week that he does not have a future with the region.

Key Battle: The Blues have the tools to cut Edinburgh apart out wide but Parks must show some playmaking nous to couple with his kicking game. Paterson will hope to dominate with ball in hand.

Trivia: Williams will leave the Blues at the end of the season with their record number of Heineken Cup appearances to his name, having run out in the tournament on 62 occasions to date.

Stats: Edinburgh have won five of their last six Heineken Cup games at Murrayfield.

Quote Unquote: "The guys were frustrated and disappointed after last Friday's game, and it's really come across in training this week that they want to make amends and give our supporters another good win at home. Not much went our way down in Northampton, but equally we know that we made too many mistakes at crucial times to quibble with the result." - Edinburgh coach Rob Moffat.

"We're all disappointed but there are still a lot of positives in the regional system. We are producing young internationals coming through the system, we have to hurt a little bit and see the reality. We're going top keep working as together we've good people and good coaches involved right across the four regions." - Dai Young addresses the disappointment at the Welsh regions' Heineken Cup failure.

Prediction: Cardiff have the stronger side on paper and if Parks decides to enjoy his return to Scotland they should upset Edinburgh's recent home record.

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