Jenkins skippers the side in Swansea in the absence of the injured Sam Warburton and fresh from becoming Wales’ most-capped player against Scotland last Saturday. The veteran loosehead celebrated his 105th Welsh cap in the final round of the RBS 6 Nations but will now turn his attentions to avenging a narrow defeat the last time these two teams met in the capital in December.
Jenkins is joined in the Blues’ starting XV by Wales wing Alex Cuthbert after he started each of the recent Championship fixtures but Paul John and Dale McIntosh are missing full back Leigh Halfpenny after he suffered the same fate as Warburton in dislocating his shoulder on international duty.
Centre Corey Allen features for the first time since injuring his shoulder against Argentina in the Dove Men Series Test in November and scrum-half Lloyd Williams is back in the mix after limping out of the loss to Glasgow last month.
“It’s great to have Gethin Jenkins and Alex Cuthbert back in the starting line up. Hopefully these guys will come in and give the team a real lift,” said John, who takes charge of the side for the first time since Phil Davies’ resignation.
“We are looking forward to going down there and playing in Swansea. It’s a cracking stadium and hopefully it
will be a big crowd to perform in front of too.
“The target until the end of the season is to perform well and get some wins. We want real positivity and the players to express themselves.”
Webb returns to action for the Ospreys having missed the Scotland game with an ankle injury he sustained during the clash with England at Twickenham, while Biggar joins him at halfback after impressing at the weekend following four successive Tests among the replacements.
Jones also started the 51-3 thrashing of the Scots and Tipuric came off the bench but there is no place in the Ospreys 23 for hooker Richard Hibbard who is struggling with a shoulder problem. Adam Jones is named among the replacements.
Victory for the fourth-placed Ospreys would see them extend their healthy advantage over the sixth-placed Scarlets and pile on the pressure on fifth-placed Glasgow as the race for the play-offs hots up.
Steve Tandy’s troops are currently 10 points clear of the Scarlets and three ahead of the Warriors but the Scottish side have two games in hand prior to this weekend’s action.
“There are six games left, we are sitting in fourth place at the moment and that’s where we want to stay. If we are going to achieve that, then we all know we’ll need to raise our performance level considerably from where it was in our last game,” said Tandy, whose team lost out at Edinburgh on February 28.
“We’ve got an excellent record in this competition since play-offs were introduced, having won it twice and made the semis one other time, with last year the only time we failed to finish in the top four. That still hurts and we want to make sure we don’t miss out this year.
“We know we can’t afford to slip up at all. There’s a lot of responsibility on the shoulders of the experienced boys in the squad, but it’s also time for some of the youngsters to step up and show what they are about.
“There’s been a buzz around training this week, looking forward to a big Welsh derby match and the start of an important period for us. We know there’ll be a good crowd at the Liberty on Friday night with all the passion and intensity that a derby match brings on and off the field. These are the games that players and supporters alike look for when the fixtures come out, and this one has added importance for us.”
Ospreys: Sam Davies; Jeff Hassler, Jonathan Spratt, Ashley Beck, Aisea Natoga; Dan Biggar, Rhys Webb; Duncan Jones, Scott Baldwin, Aaron Jarvis, Ryan Jones, Alun Wyn Jones, Sam Lewis, Justin Tipuric, Dan Baker
Replacements: Scott Otten, Marc Thomas, Adam Jones, James King, Joe Bearman, Morgan Allen, Tom Habberfield, Hanno Dirksen
Cardiff Blues: Dan Fish; Alex Cuthbert, Cory Allen, Gavin Evans, Harry Robinson; Gareth Davies, Lloyd Williams; Gethin Jenkins (capt), Rhys Williams, Taufa’ao Filise, Chris Dicomidis, Filo Paulo, Ellis Jenkins, Josh Navidi, Robin Copeland
Replacements: Kristian Dacey, Sam Hobbs, Scott Andrews, Lou Reed, Macauley Cook, Lewis Jones, Simon Humberstone, Isaia Tuifua
