Victory for the Blues will see the Arms Park outfit jump above Leinster and regain top spot after a disappointing festive period.
A below-par performance in the 11-6 Boxing Day win against the Dragons was followed up by their biggest league defeat of the season by the Ospreys on Monday. And Young insists the 22-3 loss at the Liberty Stadium has sent a big reminder to his players that they must sharpen up if they want to fight for domestic honours.
Young said, “I’ve got a lot of time for Andy Robinson. He coached me on the Lions tour and is an extremely motivated and organised person so I’m sure his team will be the same.
“They’re a different side to the one we’ve played over the last few seasons. They’ve certainly got enough quality in their squad to win at the Arms Park.
“But we’re still challenging for the title and we’ll need a huge improvement on our recent performances.The standards that we’ve set throughout the year have been much higher than we’ve shown during the festive period.
“I was pleased with the result against the Dragons on Boxing Day but we were extremely poor. I was very disappointed with our skill levels, accuracy and decision-making. And although we performed better against the Ospreys, we know we’re still not playing at our best.”
The Blues make six changes including one positional to the side with Wales flanker Robin Sowden-Taylor replacing veteran Martyn Williams who is rested along with prop Gethin Jenkins and hooker Rhys Thomas for the forthcoming Heineken Cup crunch clashes against Guinness Premiership duo Harlequins and Bristol in January.
John Yapp and Gary Powell deputise in the front row as Taufa’ao Filise drops to the bench, scrum half Jason Spice takes over from Richie Rees while Dafydd Hewitt comes in at centre for Jamie Robinson who misses out through illness. In Robinson’s absence, the versatile Tom Shanklin shuffles across from inside to outside centre.
Cardiff Blues: B Blair; J Roberts, T Shanklin, D Hewitt, G Thomas; N Macleod, J Spice; J Yapp, G Williams, G Powell, D Jones, S Morgan, M Molitika, X Rush (Capt), R Sowden Taylor
Replacements: T Filise, D Goodfield, P Tito, M Lewis, R Rees, R Jones, T Selley
Edinburgh: B Cairns; A Turnbull, N De Luca, J Houston, S Webster; P Godman, M Blair; A Jacobsen, R Ford, G Kerr, M Mustchin, B Gissing, A Hogg (Capt), D Callam, R Rennie
Replacements: A Kelly, A Allori, C Hamilton, R Reid, B Meyer, D Blair, H Southwell
