Cardiff Blues head coach Danny Wilson is not in search of a tonic to cure his selection headache for Friday’s trip to Munster – instead hoping to ‘suffer’ with it more regularly with full availability at his disposal. The return of captain Gethin Jenkins is one of four changes Wilson has made for the trip to Irish Independent Park, with Alex Cuthbert, Gareth Anscombe and Kristian Dacey all set to start. In addition, Josh Turnbull, Sam Warburton and Lloyd Williams, who played no part in last weekend’s 34-16 defeat of Edinburgh, have been named among the replacements. And Wilson said: “We sat round a table as a coaching group and we got the selection headache we wanted in terms of the recruitment we have done. “We had some really tough decisions to make. Ultimately some of those decisions are based around winning a game of rugby and secondly making sure we develop a squad. “I feel we have two players in every position of real quality, if we can keep everyone fit then selection becomes difficult which is what we want. “If you look at the teams that win things, they do it off the back of a squad. We didn’t have that last year but are beginning to grow that. “We believe we are on the right track to building something but it’s still in that building phase and it will be for a while. “We’ve had one week at home but know we have a huge challenge on Friday night.” Munster have made two changes from the side that defeated Scarlets last weekend with Ian Keatley and Andrew Conway coming into the starting XV. Hooker Duncan Casey, without a Guinness PRO12 appearance since November, is named among the replacements. The Welshmen’s 37-28 victory at BT Sport Cardiff Arms Park in round 12 last season ended a run of five successive Munster victories in this fixture. Cardiff Blues are the only visiting side to have won on three separate occasions in Cork in the Guinness PRO12, in seasons 2006/07, 2007/08 and 2012/13. Despite seeing his team win last week, new Munster chief Rassie Erasmus is expecting an improved performance against the Blues He said: “It was gutsy and determined and the guys were prepared to work at their game out there. “But both tactically and technically there was so many things that were not spot on, there is so much to work on. That always helps not to get carried away. “It’s a short turnaround and we have so many things to rectify, and I’m pretty sure we won’t rectify all of them before Friday and there will be some mistakes as well. “As long as we go game by game and improve from experience of the previous weekend’s game, we’ll get better and better. “The way we played on Friday won’t win us any championships, or any cups. But that’s something to build on.” Overall Guinness PRO12 head to head record: Played 26, Munster Rugby won 16, Cardiff Blues won 10 At Irish Independent Park, 7:35pm. Live on TG4 and BBC Wales Referee: Ian Davies (WRU, 50th competition game) Assistant Referees: Craig Evans (WRU), Nigel Correll (IRFU) Citing Commissioner: Gordon Black (IRFU) TMO: Jim Yuille (SRU)
