An Anglo-Welsh clash sees Cardiff travel to Kingston Park (kick-off 6.30pm) to face a Newcastle team rock bottom of the Aviva Premiership who will be looking to the LV=Cup to kick start their season.
Newcastle Falcons will unleash some of their big guns on the competition with Euan Murray, fresh from his World Cup exploits down under, starting in the front-row while giant lock Andrew van der Heijden gets the nod in the second row.
Kiwi Jeremy Manning returns to the back division following a lengthy spell on the sideline and will form a mouth-watering centre combination with new South African signing Corne Uys.
Rikki Sheriffe and Luke Eves occupy both wings while Jordi Pasqualin, an LV= Cup winner with Gloucester last term is handed a chance to impress at scrum-half.
Speaking about Euan Murray Falcons boss Alan Tait said: “He is one of the best scrummagers in the world, and Mickey Ward has got a smile on his face as front-row coach because he knows like me that great players make a great difference.
“I am expecting the scrum to be a solid base for us to attack from, and Euan will be a key part of that.”
“I have always said that I am keen to get a Newcastle Falcons style of rugby, so that everybody knows when the Falcons turn up they are going to get a certain type of game.
Cardiff Coaches Gareth Baber and Justin Burnell have named a young team for their first LV=Cup match of the season
Looking ahead to the LV=Cup match against Newcastle, Baber said: "I think it's important that some of the players that haven't featured in the first five or six games are given the opportunity to push for the main squad. This is certainly what these two games are about."
"We are ambitious as a group and we want to make sure that we are pushing everybody all the time and this is the next phase of pushing on."
"It is a young team that we've selected, but it's full of talent as well and that's what we want to see as coaches."
"I imagine they (Newcastle) will want to create some momentum and that can happen in tournaments like this, where you can go on a bit of a run, and then it lends itself to your League campaign."
"I think they'd want to target this game against us, especially playing at home, but what we have to do as a group is make sure it doesn't happen, or afford them that opportunity and get positives that we want out of the match."
Newcastle: 15.Greg Goosen, 14.Rikki Sheriffe, 13.Corne Uys, 12.Jeremy Manning,11.Luke Eves, 10.Jimmy Gopperth (capt), 9.Jordi Pasqualin, 1.Darren Fearn, 2.Michael Mayhew, 3.Euan Murray, 4.Glen Townson, 5.Andrew van der Heijden, 6.Mark Wilson,7.Redford Pennycook, 8.Ally Hogg.
Replacements: 16.Joe Graham, 17.Ashley Wells, 18.James Hall, 19.Tim Swinson, 20. Will Welch, 21.Will Chudley, 22.Jamie Helleur, 23.Joel Hodgson
Cardiff Blues: 15.Dan Fish, 14.Richard Mustoe, 13.Owen Williams, 12.Cory Allen, 11.Adam Thomas, 10.Rhys Patchell, 9.Rhys Downes, 1.Nathan Trevett, 2.Ryan Tyrrell, 3.Ryan Harford, 4.Cory Hill, 5.James Downes (capt), 6.Ellis Jenkins, 7.Thomas Young, 8.Luke Hamilton,
Replacements:16.Rhys Williams, 17.Jamie Corsi, 18.Thomas Davies, 19.Matthew Screech, 20.Rhys Shellard, 21.Lewis Jones, 22.Lewis Williams, 23.Richard Smith
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