THE SCOTSMAN REPORTS

‘Ponty' edged a great battle at Millbrae 22-21 last season, and, currently top of the Principality league and having beaten Llandovery in their opening cup game, are hopeful that Sardis Road is declared playable.

Ayr coach Kenny Murray said: "We have no Glasgow professionals, but we have managed to get Nick Campbell and George Hunter from Glasgow Hawks and the club would like to thank the Hawks coaches Peter Wright and Jamie Dempsey for their continued support in this competition.

"The rest are Ayr players and include three 17-year-olds (Mark Bennett, Robbie Ferguson and Murray Beckwith) and 18-year-old Peter McCallum."

The third B&I Cup match was to have been played at Malleny Park but there was no chance of the Balerno pitch being playable and so Currie's opponents the Cornish Pirates - the 2009/10 champions - stepped in and have paid Currie £14,000 to cover flights to the south of England and an agreed share of the ticket revenue.

Currie face a professional side that boasts a better academy system than Edinburgh and Glasgow. The Pirates currently sit third in the Championship, 12 points off leaders, recently-relegated Worcester, having not missed a week in 15 since the start of the season.

Highlighting the difference in resources, Currie have been snowbound. The Scottish league champions are without sevens caps James Johnston and Douglas Fife, Finlay Gillies is injured and Steve Burton has university exams today, but Glasgow's Alex Dunbar is drafted in with help from Ayr, flyer Andy Turnbull starts on the other flank and Johnny Smith and skipper Andy Adam are back.

TEAMS

Cornish Pirates (v Currie at The Mennaye, 2.30pm): To come…

Currie: T Brown; A Dunbar, H Abercrombie, A MacMahon, A Turnbull; M Scott, R Snedden, J Cox, S Simonsen, A Hamilton, R Wilson, G Temple, M Cairns (capt), M Entwhistle, R Weston. Subs: F Scott, R Merrilees, A Adam, A Best, A Binikos, J Smith, A Whittingham.

Melrose (v Munster at the Greenyards, 2pm): F Thomson; C Anderson, J Murray, J helps, D McCall; S Wight (capt), R Chrystie; N Little, G Innes, R Grant, G Elder, G Dodds, J Dalziel, G Runciman, N Talei. Subs: R Ferguson, N Beavon, H Mitchell, R Miller, S McCormick, C Jackson, C Shaw.

Munster: from, S Deasy, S Scanlon, D Barnes, B Murphy, T Smith, I Dineen, T Gleeson, C Sheridan, C Murray, D Cusack, Dave Ryan, S Archer, P Borlase, S Henry, D Casey, B Holland capt, D Ryan, D Foley, D O'Callaghan, K Essex, T O'Donnell, P Butler.

Pontypridd (v Ayr at Sardis Road, 2.30pm): G Wyatt; L Williams, A Thomas, D Lockyer, O Williams, D Gunter, L Jones; L Smout, T Hetherington, K Knaggs, C Locke, R Savage, J Thomas, D Waters, C Dicomidis (capt). Subs: K Baller, S Humberstone, C Clayton, H Dowden, E Siggery, C Hill, S Williams.

Ayr: G Anderson; M Bennett, R Curle, R McCallum, C Taylor; F Climo, AJ MacFarlane; G Reid, S Fenwick, A Kelly, D Kelly, N Campbell, J Crossan, R Colhoun, A Dunlop.

This article was originally posted on 11-Dec-2010, 08:14 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 11-Dec-2010, 08:33.