CARDIFF BLUES HAVE recalled captain Gethin Jenkins for tomorrow night’s PRO12 meeting with Munster (7.35pm).
After claiming a 34-16 victory over Edinburgh on the opening weekend of the new campaign, Danny Wilson’s side travel to Musgrave Park in search of a second successive win.
35-year-old Jenkins replaces Rhys Gill at loosehead prop and is one of four Wales internationals returning to the starting XV along with Alex Cuthbert, Gareth Anscombe and Kristian Dacey.
International team-mates Sam Warburton and Lloyd Williams are included among the substitutes.
“We have some players back available for selection including a few internationals,” said head coach Wilson.
“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.
“It’s a tough, tough league. 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.”
Cardiff Blues (v Munster)
15. Dan Fish
14. Alex Cuthbert
13. Cory Allen
12. Rey Lee-Lo
11. Tom James
10. Gareth Anscombe
9. Tomos Williams
1. Gethin Jenkins (c)
2. Kristian Dacey
3. Taufa-ao Filise
4. George Earle
5. Macauley Cook
6. Josh Navidi
7. Ellis Jenkins
8. Nick Williams
Replacements:
16. Matthew Rees
17. Rhys Gill
18. Scott Andrews
19. Josh Turnbull
20. Sam Warburton
21. Lee Williams
22. Steve Shingler
23. Matthew Morgan
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Excellent!!great to see him getting financially rewarded for his talent
@Jamie: give it a break lad.
@Barry Ward: what?
Your chip on the shoulder you have against the GAA!
A catholic gaelic footballer from tyrone wearing the sash
@Ruairi Kinsella: ruairi I had to think about that one. Fair play to him anyway. Wouldn’t we all like to have the ability to do it and get paid for it. Beats what I do for a living anyway.
What sort of financial figures do minors converting AFL Get?
@Christiaan Theron: 100% more than what they’d get staying with the GAA
@Christiaan Theron: I think rookies get a minimum AUD$70k. Tadgh Kennelly was quoted as saying the Irish kids going out are on standard contracts of AUD$80k with flights, rent and a car taken care of for 2 years. After that they’d hope to be on a senior list and earning something close to the league average of AUD$300k, but I’d guess that average is skewed high by the elite players wages.