Pontypridd secured a narrow 24-30 win over Leeds Carnegie last Sunday, a victory which saw them move to the top of Pool 5, level on points with Leinster.
The Sardis Road club are one of Wales’ main hopes of reaching the quarter finals but with only the top team in each group going through, the Premiership clubs have a fight on their hands to progress.
Fly-half Dai Flanagan orchestrated last week’s win away to Leeds and he will again be a main man for Dale McIntosh’s side.
A win in the reverse fixture on Saturday would see Ponty go into their final two games in a good position to progress to the quarter finals.
In Pool 8, Llandovery face a crunch clash with Doncaster as they travel to the north of England. The Knights were narrow 13-16 winners over the Drovers at Church Bank last weekend and the two teams go into the rematch level on points.
Llandovery top the pool courtesy of a slightly bigger points difference and know a win in Yorkshire is vital if they want to progress to the latter stages.
Elsewhere, Llanelli’s Craig Hawkins plays his 200th game for the club in their clash with London Scottish at Parc y Scarlets.
Anthony Buchanan’s side slipped up away to Scottish last week and fell to the bottom of Pool 6 as a result. All is not lost though and in an extremely tight and competitive pool, Llanelli know they must win all their remaining games to make it any further in the competition.
In Pool 2, Neath face another difficult tie, this time away to Bedford. The Blues were convincing 12-62 winners at The Gnoll last Saturday and know a win would guarantee them qualification to the quarter finals.
Neath head coach Pat Horgan knows his side face another tough ask and just wants his players to give their all against a team who narrowly missed out on promotion to the Aviva Premiership last year.
“This week is going to be tough for us again,” he said.
“I just want the Neath players to go out there and put in maximum effort. We’ve made a lot of improvements over the last few weeks and if we stick to our game-plan and cut out the errors, we’ll give Bedford a good game.
“We just need to get through this Saturday’s game and then hopefully we’ll have some more players back from injury when we take on Llanelli at home.”
In the same pool, Bedwas will be favourites as they take on Stirling at home. The Gwent club were narrow winners in Scotland last week and look set to extend their brilliant away form.
Carmarthen Quins still have faint hopes of progressing from Pool 3 as they face the long trip to Dundee while Swansea face a return fixture with Cornish Pirates.
Newport were beaten by Newcastle at Rodney Parade last week and things don’t get any easier as they face the unbeaten Falcons at Kingston Park this time around.
In the remaining fixtures, Bridgend, Cardiff and Aberavon can no longer progress but face clashes with Bristol, Ulster and Plymouth respectively.
B&I Cup fixtures:
Friday, 14 December 2012.
Bristol v Bridgend. KO 19:45
Munster v Rotherham Titans. KO 19:00
Plymouth Albion v Aberavon. KO 19:45
Saturday, 15 December 2012.
Bedford v Neath. KO15:00
Bedwas v Stirling County. KO 14:30
Cardiff v Ulster. KO14:30
Connacht v Cross Keys. KO 14:30
Doncaster v Llandovery. 14:30
Dundee High v Carmarthen Quins. KO 14:00
Llanelli v London Scottish. KO 14:30
Melrose v Nottingham. KO 13:45
Moseley v Gala. KO 15:00
Pontypridd v Leeds Carnegie. KO 14:30
Swansea v Cornish Pirates. KO 16:30
Sunday, 16 December 2012.
Leinster v Jersey. KO 14:30
Newcastle v Newport. KO 15:00
