**Cardiff Blues will be hoping that last week’s defeat to Munster was just a blip as they look to return to winning ways against Ulster on Monday evening.** Both sides sit second in their respective conferences heading into the weekend, with Dan McFarland’s visitors still unbeaten in their three matches this season. You can tell this Ulster side still have a bee in their bonnet about coming so close to Guinness PRO14 success last season, and are chewing up anyone that comes near them at the moment. Away form was their Achilles' heel in the last campaign, as they failed to exert their authority on matches away from Kingspan, but after a 24-12 win at Ospreys in Round 2, have they got rid of their away day blues? **What’s at stake?** We are still in the embryonic stages of the new Guinness PRO14 season, but this one will go some way to proving who stands a chance of mounting a serious challenge at the top of their respective conferences later in the campaign. Strength in depth is key when you have so many players away on international duty like these two do, and will go some way to helping with a title push throughout the year. Last weekend was a perfect example of that for Monday’s visitors, with the South African duo of Marcell Coetzee and Louis Ludik stepping up to the plate in the absence of a swathe of key names.
