Cardiff Blues skipper Paul Tito lifts the Anglo-Welsh Cup last season © Getty Images

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Tournaments/Tours Anglo-Welsh Cup

Teams Cardiff Blues | England | Gloucester | Northampton | Saracens | Wales

The battle for Anglo-Welsh Cup supremacy resumes this weekend with the semi-finals of this season's competition.

Defending champions Cardiff Blues kick of the action against Premiership rivals Gloucester in a replay of the 2009 finale that saw the Magners League side claim an emphatic 50-12 victory at Twickenham. The Blues also defeated Sunday's visitors to Cardiff City Stadium 26-25 in the group stages of this year's competition but captain Paul Tito knows this weekend represents a whole new challenge for his side.

"I think this year's match against them will be a different proposition," he said. "We played them in the pool stages up in Kingsholm and we managed to win there - just. They seemed to have improved massively since Christmas, they've recorded some big wins, including a big win at Harlequins, so I'm sure it will be a good game and look forward to playing them in Cardiff."

Tito is also looking forward to renewing acquaintances with Gloucester fly-half Nicky Robinson, who left the Blues for Kingsholm last summer. "It will be good to welcome Nicky Robinson back. He's a Cardiff boy through and through, and was at the club for many a year and served the club very well for those years. He's gone to Gloucester for a bit of a break from his hometown, but we look forward to seeing him on the pitch at Cardiff, I'm sure he'll get a very warm welcome."

Blues boss David Young has made four changes for the clash with Dafydd Hewitt set to start at inside centre in place of Tom Shanklin who is on Wales duty in Ireland. While in the forwards Scott Andrews comes in for the injured Gary Powell, Ben White replaces Sam Warburton who is also on Wales duty and Andy Powell starts at blindside with Maama Molitika dropping down to the bench.

"This is a massive game for us that we'd love to win and put ourselves in the final but we know it's a huge challenge against a full strength Gloucester team," said Young. "They've got very few withdrawals and we'll probably have 8 or 9 unavailable to us."

Gloucester coach Bryan Redpath is wary of the threat posed by the Welsh side, despite them having several key figures away on Six Nations duty. "Cardiff have been a pretty effective side over the past few years and I think that last season was probably their best season for a long, long time," he said.

"Even with several internationals away, they've still got a very good squad. It's a very big challenge for us. It's a semi-final, it's a one-off game. It isn't four points at stake, it's win or lose. But, we've got a game to play no matter whoever takes the pitch for them. Our focus will be on the ones who are playing and not the ones who are missing. They'll still have a lot of good players in their side."

Redpath's side have also lost players to international commitments in the form of Marco Bortolami, Rory Lawson, Scott Lawson and Gareth Delve. They are also without Dave Attwood, Luke Narraway and Greg Somerville, Olly Morgan, Andy Williams and Tim Taylor through injury so Mike Tindall, who has been released by England, captains the side with Freddie Burns at fullback and Paul Doran Jones at tight-head prop. Robinson and Dave Lewis are the half-backs.

Sunday's other semi sees Northampton host Saracens at Franklin's Gardens. Sarries are without South Africa flanker Wikus van Heerden, who has a shoulder injury, so his compatriot Ernst Joubert captains the side from No.8. Prop Kas Lealamanua and flanker Andy Saull return to the starting line-up.

Director of Rugby Brendan Venter has called on his team to rediscover the fighting spirit that served them so well in the first half of the season. "We haven't been good enough and haven't shown the fight that we had in the first half of the season and we need to get that back," said Venter. "We've really played ourselves into the position as underdogs on Sunday with our form in the past few weeks but that's a position that we don't mind being in."

The in-form Saints, who are in with a chance of securing three pieces of silverware this season as they currently lie second in the Premiership and are in the quarter-finals of the Heineken Cup, have made just three changes from the side that beat Sale 15-7 in the Premiership on Sunday. Centre Jon Clarke comes in for Joe Ansbro while discarded England international Shane Geraghty starts at fly-half. Phil Dowson returns to captain the side from the blindside flank.

Director of rugby Jim Mallinder was not taking anything for granted this week when naming his side for Sunday's game. "Saracens are a good team," he said. "They know how they want to play and they've had a lot of success with it. They've got some very good players and we'll have to be at our best this weekend to beat them.

"They are very strong in the contact area in attack and defence and put a lot of pressure on you. They've also got some pacy backs out wide who are good on the counter-attack and half-backs who can put a good, structured kicking game together so we've got to be aware of those threats as well."