The prize for the winners is a place in the final scheduled to be played on the evening of Wednesday 30 April against either Billingham or Durham City who meet at Greenwood Road.

Both semi finals appear wide open, for Gateshead and the Whites  the cup is the only chance of 1^st XV silverware this season whilst Billingham and City are in line for at least a play off spot for promotion to North Two East and North One respectively.

Rovers lost 26-15 in the league game at Hedley Lawson Park last month but, as reported at the time, they assisted the hosts by conceding four tries that could all have been prevented. Those try scoring chances aside, Gateshead conceded the territorial and possession stats to the Friaragemen but Rovers couldn’t convert these advantages into match winning points, although Gareth Foreman and Michael Tucker scored good tries and both were also on the scoresheet in last week’s win over Aldwinians.

Conditions against Aldwinians meant that running rugby was at a premium and this prevented Rovers from possible making further inroads into a poor points difference. News that Driffield had lost at home to Pontefract and Carlisle had won by a single point at Old Crossleyans were the worst possible results for the White Shirts.

Those results mean that Driffield who face Crocs and Carlisle in their last two matches have nothing but pride to play for, not a good sign for Rovers. Crossleyans also have a home game against York and Carlisle visit Morpeth and so Rovers will still be anxiously looking for those results. The bottom line is that we have to beat both Aspatria and West to stand a more than even chance of staying in North Two East for next season.

For the cup game, to be refereed by Ray Sutherland, player coach Craig Lee plays Phil Hall, who missed the Aldwinians clash, at stand off in place of Chris Sainty who is unavailable. The remainder of the threequarters  are unchanged. In the pack, Reece Bingham is handed a start with Jonny Cushlow moving to the bench. Stuart Palmer has recovered from the injury that saw him leave the field last time at Gateshead and he will pack down alongside Darren Smith, Steve Wallis dropping down to the bench, where he and Cushlow are joined by Adie Rose, Thomas King and Simon Hall.

Rovers will start as underdogs but will be looking to draw inspiration from the club’s long standing cup fighting tradition and make progress to the final whilst at the same time building up confidence for the forthcoming North Two East clash with Aspatria.

Gateshead: Cloak, Findlay, Lindsay, Tate, L Carr, Simpson, Kell, McKeown, Douglas, Burns, I Carr, Weeks, Stevenson, Pluskal, Glendinning. Subs: Tilley, Leask, S Thandi, J Thandi, Harbron, Naylor

Rovers: Shires, Lilley, Rutherford, Jones, B Foreman, P Hall, G Foreman, Tucker, Bingham, Wise, S Palmer, D Smith, Kirton, Taylor, Grazier. Subs: S Hall, J Cushlow, Rose, Wallis, T King

Referee: Ray Sutherland (Durham Society)

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