Preview - Harlequins v Cardiff (LV= Cup)

Sunday 6th February 2011 Kick off: 3.15pm   After a fine win by England in Cardiff on Friday night, kicking off this year's 6 Nations, the Welsh theme continues for Sunday's visit to The Stoop by the Cardiff Blues.

Cardiff are one of three teams who can qualify from their group along with Newcastle and Wasps. At first glance Newcastle appear to have the best chance of qualifying from their group as they face Exeter at home. However, Exeter, who on the evidence of the season so far are clearly the better side, can qualify at the expense of Harlequins should they beat Newcastle and Cardiff beat Quins.

So while this may be a 2^nd tier competition there is everything to play for for a good number of teams going into the final weekend of pool fixtures. Second tier it may be, but some would love to win this competition just for the silverware, while for others it represents an excellent chance of entry to next season's Heineken Cup.

Quins are again without around 20 players through England squad call ups and injury, yet pleasingly the team still looks quite strong. There are 5 changes to the starting XV that demolished Wasps last week with Brooker and Andress coming into the front row, Casson replacing JTH at inside centre and Ross Chisholm threatening excitement from full back. Finally Lewis Stevenson makes a very welcome return to the starting lineup for the first time since the Amlin away game in Bayonne nearly four months ago.

Another reason why these cup games are so valuable is that it affords the coaches chances to test out academy players at a higher level, and for the second week in a row Will Collier and Joe Trayfoot make the bench. Trayfoot spent pretty much all of last season out injured, and so has played relatively little senior rugby. Collier on the other hand was almost ever-present at Rosslyn Park last season, and is currently in the England U20s 6 Nations squad… hmm, that sounds familiar – young academy prop putting in the graft in the lower leagues, getting selected for England U20s…

Cardiff have also picked a strong team considering they are also missing plenty of players, with Laulala, James, Tito, Filise and Williams perhaps the most notable and all having been involved in the embarrassingly one-sided game the last time these two teams met at The Stoop.

This should be a very tough game but home advantage should be the deciding factor. Both teams will be highly motivated to win, what with the semi-finals beckoning, but Quins are the only team who don't need to rely on other results should they succeed.