The Blues welcome the Italians to the Cardiff City Stadium tonight as they look to build on the morale-boosting New Year’s Eve victory over the Ospreys.
That nerve-wracking 27-25 triumph against their bitter rivals came on the back of four loses in their previous five Magners League and Heineken Cup games, with the Blues in danger of seeing their chances of success slip by the way side.
Now Tito and co are determined to avoid becoming Airioni’s first Magners League scalp in their debut season and the New Zealander is fully aware that nothing other than a win will suffice tonight.
“Mentally this will show where we are as players and as a team,” said Tito, who starts alongside Bradley Davies in the second row.
“We all know we have to win games like this one against Aironi. This is a test of our professionalism.
“Aironi is a home game and we haven’t really performed that well at home – we lost to the Scarlets and Ulster – and that is disappointing.
“The younger guys like Sam Warburton and Andries Pretorius showed us the way to go against the Ospreys. They were both outstanding and that is what we all have to do against Aironi.”
Tito believes the battle will be won and lost up front against an Aironi side coached by former Neath stalwart Rowland Phillips.
The Italian newcomers have shown their physical strength throughout the first half of the Magners League season and secured a stunning European triumph over last year’s Heineken Cup finalists Biarritz in December.
Tito is expecting Aironi to keep things tight in Cardiff but he is confident the Blues backs can do some serious damage if he and his fellow forwards can secure enough ball.
“They will be looking for a scalp and be coming over here with nothing to lose. They will take on our scrum and drive their lineouts at us,” added Tito.
“I saw their game against Treviso and they drove nearly every lineout against each other. But we handled them quite well out there so we know we can do that. It’s just all about upstairs when you play teams like this.
“We showed our mettle when we went out there earlier in the season on the back of a couple of losses. Dai (Young) put the heat on all of us in the pre-match talk before that game and told us all a few home truths.
“We won 20-3 out there and that is a good result. We know we have to roll our sleeves up front because we all know what is coming.
“They have a good pack but we have to match them and give some decent ball to our backs because we know they can hurt anyone.
“We just need to win ball. We have guys like Jamie Roberts and Tom James who are dangerous if we can give them the ball.
“It’s going to be a tough day at the office but we can beat teams like this. We are one place off the top four, have a game in hand and there are no excuses this weekend – we have to win.”
Cardiff Blues (versus Aironi Rugby, kick-off 7.30pm)
15 Chris Czekaj
14 Leigh Halfpenny
13 Tom Shanklin
12 Jamie Roberts
11 Tom James
10 Ceri Sweeney
9 Tom Slater
1 Gethin Jenkins
2 T Rhys Thomas
3 Jon Yapp
4 Bradley Davies
5 Paul Tito (c)
6 Andries Pretorius
7 Sam Warburton
8 Tom Brown
Replacements
16 Gareth Williams
17 Scott Andrews
18 Sam Hobbs
19 Deiniol Jones
20 Martyn Williams
21 Rhys Downes
22 Dan Parks
23 Dafydd Hewitt
