Guinness Pro12: Cardiff Blues v Ulster (today, 5.15pm, Cardiff Arms Park, live on Sky Sports 3)
STUART McCloskey will make his first appearance for Ulster since September as they try to get back on track in Cardiff this evening.
The international centre suffered a foot injury in the September win over Glasgow and returns to pair Luke Marshall in midfield as part of a strong side.
Tommy Bowe and Craig Gilroy will start on the wings with Charles Piutau at full-back, while Brett Herron continues to deputise for Paddy Jackson at fly-half.
Up front, Iain Henderson and Chris Henry – the latter for the first time this season – both return to club duty alongside Sean Reidy in a strong back row.
How they could do with a win. Having topped the table at the beginning of October after five straight wins, they suffered three defeats in-a-row heading into the international break to slip to sixth.
And they were rocked by the news on Thursday that Jared Payne will miss three months with a kidney injury suffered in Ireland’s win over Australia.
Andrew Trimble’s knock wasn’t on the same scale in terms of severity but he is another absentee.
With a huge block of games on the horizon this month, including a Champions Cup double header with Clermont and interpros against Connacht and Leinster, Les Kiss could do with some good news.
The potential to ease themselves back into action with a win last weekend against a Zebre side that sits second from bottom was denied to Ulster by the weather, the frozen Kingspan pitch deemed unplayable on Friday evening.
The trip to the Arms Park looks considerably tougher, where Edinburgh and Glasgow have fallen victim and Leinster only just escaped.
Ulster will know that all too well from their 23-13 defeat at the ground back in February, a result which was to prove a major dent in their title aspirations.
“We haven’t really gone back to last year,” says Ulster’s Luke Marshall.
“There’s enough motivation from the past month or so on our own performances. We know we’ve not been good enough and it’s got to change, and we’re focussing on doing that.”
The home side’s form has dipped too, though the return of Welsh international forwards Sam Warburton and Gethin Jenkins from their disappointing November series strengths their resources.
“Their form at the start of the league, they won three or four in a row. They’ve maybe dipped a bit since but they signed a lot of good players in the off-season and that’s definitely showing,” said Marshall.
“They’ll have their international guys back, which we unfortunately won’t have. It’s tough over there. We’ll have to be at our best to beat them.”
The return of Warburton and Jenkins are among the five changes from their 18-7 defeat by Connacht last weekend.
Alex Cuthbert and Lloyd Williams are also back from international duty and both start, while Blaine Scully switches to full-back in the absence of Dan Fish.
"We beat Ulster at home last season in quite an exciting game and I envisage something similar on Saturday evening," Blues head coach Danny Wilson said.
"They would have wanted that game last week and are coming into this after three weeks off but they have a star-studded team and their internationals back. They have some real quality.”
Cardiff Blues: B Scully; A Cuthbert, R Lee-Lo, W Halaholo, T James; S Shingler, L Williams; G Jenkins, K Dacey, T Filise; G Earle, J Turnbull; E Jenkins, S Warburton, J Navidi Replacements: M Rees, R Gill, S Andrews, J Hoeata, M Cook, T Williams, N Robinson, M Morgan
Ulster: C Piutau, T Bowe, L Marshall, S McCloskey, C Gilroy, B Herron, R Pienaar; K McCall, R Herring, W Herbst, P Browne, F van der Merwe, I Henderson, C Henry, S Reidy Replacements: J Andrew, A Warwick, R Ah You, K Treadwell, C Ross, P Marshall, L Ludik, D Cave
