Cardiff v Leicester: Teams

Cardiff Blues and Leicester Tigers will face-off in the second Heineken Cup semi-final at the Millennium Stadium on Sunday.

Coach David Young has made just one change to the side that defeated Toulouse in the quarter-final and has included all six of his British and Irish Lions stars, although Andy Powell will start from the bench.

Richie Rees comes in to fill the scrum-half berth in place of the injured Jason Spice, with Darren Allinson taking his place amongst the substitutes.

Welcome returns

Meanwhile, Leicester welcome the return of Scott Hamilton and Marcos Ayerza to their starting XV for the crucial encounter.

Hamilton takes his place on the wing after being rested for last weekend's Guinness Premiership win over Bristol, while Ayerza comes into the front row, alongside George Chuter and Martin Castrogiovanni.

Craig Newby keeps his place at blindside flanker with Ben Woods and Jordan Crane completing the back row.

The England duo of Tom Croft and Ben Kay continue at lock. Geordan Murphy will once again captain the team from full-back.

There are six internationals on the bench, including Julian White, Harry Ellis and Aaron Mauger who makes his return to the match day squad after injury.

The Millennium Stadium is expecting an impressive attendance of over 50,000 fans for the important match.

Cardiff Blues have reached the semi-finals of the Heineken Cup for the first time since they became a regional outfit in 2003.

The last time Cardiff RFC arrived at the last four stage in Europe came back in 1996 when they beat Leinster 23-14 at Landsdowne Road before losing in the final to Toulouse.

Leicester have the greater experience at the business end of the competition after being involved in four previous Heineken Cup semi-finals. They have won three of those, including European and domestic doubles in 2001 and 2002 - their sole loss coming against Stade Francais four years ago.

Past glories

But head coach Richard Cockerill dismissed the Tigers' past glories, preferring instead to concentrate on the task ahead.

"All this talk of trophies is a bit surreal for me," he said. "I just get on with what I do.

"All the fanfare of what we've done and how we are doing it just washes over

my head really.

"If we get some silverware I will reflect on it at the end of the year, but we've got some good teams and big games to play."

Cardiff Blues: 15 Ben Blair, 14 Leigh Halfpenny, 13 Tom Shanklin, 12 Jamie Roberts, 11 Tom James, 10 Nicky Robinson, 9 Richie Rees, 8 Xavier Rush, 7 Martyn Williams, 6 Maama Molitika, 5 Paul Tito (c), 4 Bradley Davies, 3 Tauf'au Filise, 2 Gareth Williams, 1 Gethin Jenkins.

Replacements: 16 John Yapp, 17 Rhys Thomas, 18 Deiniol Jones, 19 Andy Powell, 20 Darren Allinson, 21 Ceri Sweeney, 22 Gareth Thomas.

Leicester Tigers: 15 Geordan Murphy (c), 14 Scott Hamilton, 13 Dan Hipkiss, 12 Sam Vesty, 11 John Murphy, 10 Toby Flood, 9 Julien Dupuy, 8 Jordan Crane, 7 Ben Woods, 6 Craig Newby, 5 Ben Kay, 4 Tom Croft, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 2 George Chuter, 1 Marcos Ayerza.

Replacements: 16 Benjamin Kayser, 17 Julian White, 18 Marco Wentzel, 19 Lewis Moody, 20 Harry Ellis, 21 Aaron Mauger, 22 Matt Smith.