Premier Three sides Dalziel and Dumfries will battle it out this afternoon for a place in the RBS West Regional Cup semi-finals.


The two teams meet at Dalziel Park at 1.30pm in a last-eight tie with the victors going through to join Ayr, Whitecraigs and one of Glasgow Hawks and Hillhead/Jordanhill in the semis. The hosts have got to this stage without playing a match, having been given a bye in the first round of what is becoming a disjointed cup season throughout the country, while Dumfries won 13-11 away at GHA in round one.

Earlier in the season Dumfries, who are second in the league, defeated seventh-placed Dalziel 15-3. That day in October it was quite a feisty affair with three players sin-binned, but tries from Villi Sattalla and Graeme Gemmell sealed it for Dumfries. After today they also meet in Premier Three next week and both promise to be exciting affairs.

However, Dalziel may be rusty having not played a competitive fixture since the end of November, while Dumfries drew 16-16 with Kirkcaldy in the league last week.

In the other cup match in the west today Hawks host Hillhead/Jordanhill (3pm). Hawks will be on a high having defeated Hamilton convincingly in their opening RBS Premier B match seven days ago and have named a strong squad.

Centre Dean Kelbrick continued his return from injury with a run-out for the Scotland club international team in their win over Scotland under-20 on Thursday night and starts at 13. Mike Martin has moved to stand-off and Kris Hamilton comes in at full-back.

Hillhead/Jordanhill travel to Old Anniesland also in fine fettle having seen off Cartha Queens Park in the cup and Falkirk in RBS Premier C so far this year.

Dundee HSFP will be looking to regain top spot in RBS Caledonia Regional Cup Group A when they make the short trip to Morgan Academy (2pm).

They make seven changes to the team that won on league duty at Melrose last week, including Colin Strachan and Ross Lemon coming into the backs.

In Group B Perthshire face Stirling County and Falkirk travel to Howe of Fife, both at 2pm.

In the RBS East Regional Cup there is one match with Haddington entering the competition with a Pool One match at home to Edinburgh Accies at 2pm.

This article was posted on 21-Jan-2012, 07:30 by Hugh Barrow.