Cardiff Blues head coach Phil Davies admits he’ll be glad to get back to home comforts against Treviso as the club continues its transition to their Arms Park surroundings. The Blues endured a hard-fought Rodney Parade encounter against Welsh rivals Newport Gwent Dragons last time out in the RaboDirect PRO12. But despite claiming a 16-5 victory Davies insists the roar of the home faithful can steer his side to back to back victories for the first time since February. The Blues have made seven changes to the team that beat the Dragons. Dan Fish comes in at full-back, Jamie Roberts starts for the first time this season at centre and Tom James starts on the wing. In the forwards new signing Robin Copeland starts and No. 8 Lou Reed starts at lock with Benoit Bourrust and Andy Kyriacou in the front row. "It's great to be back at the Arms Park for our second home RaboDirect PRO12 fixture,” said Davies. "Last weekend we had a good, gutsy win against the Dragons at Rodney Parade. It is never an easy place to go to and their home crowd really got behind the Men of Gwent and made some noise. "It was a bit of a scrappy game as Welsh derbies can be but I thought many of our players acquitted themselves well. "We know Treviso will be a difficult team to beat. They are very physical, especially up front, and have a good set piece as they showed against the Ospreys." Having lost their last two RaboDirect PRO12 games Treviso head coach Franco Smith makes four changes for the trip to Wales and claims he’s looking for an improvement. Debutant Giulio Toniolatti comes in for Ludovico Nitoglia while Edoardo Gori will take his place on the wing. Among the forwards Dean Budd replaces the injured Corniel Van Zyl while Marco Filippucci will start at flanker. And despite Blues’ dominance in this fixture, the Welsh side having won the last four encounters, Smith claims his troops have a fighting chance. “We are much better than we have been in previous years and we want to take that into the game against Cardiff,” he said. "Cardiff have won both their away games but have not won at home yet which is a strange stat but we won't worry about that. We will take it one minute at a time." "It's another match and you could say it starts our second cycle. We have seen where we are after three matches and adjusted our ambitions accordingly. Cardiff are a club who are strong every year with a lot of tradition. "They are playing at the Arms Park now rather than the football stadium and they are very proud so after losing their first game there they will be desperate to put things right.” At Cardiff Arms Park, 6.30. Referee: Peter Fitzgibbon (IRFU, 40th competition game) Assistant Referees: Sean Brickell, Chris Williams (both WRU) Citing Commissioner: Jeff Mark (WRU) TMO: Tony Rowlands (WRU) Live on S4C
