Tom Shanklin, the Wales and Lions centre, has been left out of the Cardiff Blues side to face Toulouse in the Heineken Cup at the Cardiff City Stadium on Saturday.
His place has been taken by the New Zealand centre, Casey Laulala, who will be making his second appearance for the region after joining last month, forming a midfield pairing with Jamie Roberts.
Shanklin was last month omitted from the Wales side that played against Australia with the inexperienced Jonathan Davies partnering Roberts, but the Blues head coach, David Young, said the 30-year-old still had a major role to play at the region.
"It was a very difficult decision," he said. "Casey has only just joined us but we felt that he gives us something we have been lacking because he is an out-and-out outside-centre with some deft creative touches and he will give us something a bit different. We have three top centres but only two places. It was something we thought long and hard about and we would have been comfortable playing Tom at 12 alongside Casey but Jamie had a big game for the Barbarians last weekend and we feel his strength can test Toulouse's drift defence.
"It is a 23-man game these days and having a player of Tom's calibre on the bench shows how far we have come in the last few years. It has been a relief to be able to pick from a virtually full-strength squad for the first time this season and because we have had so many players out, we have struggled to get out of second gear.
"We are looking for this game to kick-start our season. We beat Toulouse in the quarter-final last season through guts and determination and 60% of our victories that campaign were by a single score. We have tended to lose games by a single score this season and we need to score more tries, which is where Casey comes in. We have dangerous players out wide and he can bring them into play."
A crowd of 36,000 watched the quarter-final at the Millennium Stadium last April, but tickets for Saturday have only just reached 10,000. "We need a large and noisy crowd," said the Blues flanker Martyn Williams. "This is a defining game for us and the spectators can play a big part."
