Powergen Draw

By Elliott Josypenko
September 21 2004

There were mixed fortunes for Pertemps Bees when the draws were made today for the third and fourth rounds of the Powergen Cup.

There were mixed fortunes for Pertemps Bees when the draws were made today for the third and fourth rounds of the Powergen Cup. Pertemps Bees, who had only one home draw on their way to the semi-finals of last season's competition, face a trip to play either Nuneaton or Doncaster, both National Two clubs, in the third round on October 16. If they win that game they will then have home advantage against either Orrell, Blaydon or Wharfedale in the fourth round on November 6. "On current form it looks like we will be going to Doncaster and that's a very tough draw for us," said Phil Maynard, Pertemps Bees' director of rugby. "Doncaster may be a division below us but they have a very expensively-assembled squad, a number of their players are full time and they are a side destined for National One. "It's probably one of the toughest draws that we could have had at this stage of the competition and it means that we will have to approach the cup game as we would a National One fixture." This weekend Pertemps Bees face a league game at Orrell which has been moved from Saturday to Sunday September 26 at Orrell's request. Maynard hopes to welcome back full-back Dave Knight (knee), lock Dan Zaltzman (neck) and flanker Gavin Pfister (ankle), who all missed last Saturday's 49-13 win at London Welsh, which will leave some difficult selection decisions for the trip to Edge Hall Road. Simon Martin, Rob Hurrell and Nathan Carter all impressed when they were given their chance at London Welsh with Carter scoring two tries on his first start of the season and Hurrell, a summer recruit from Coventry, another. "For once I hope to be able to pick from almost a full-strength squad but that will bring some hard selection decisions with it," Maynard said. "Dan Zaltzman and Gavin Pfister are both experienced players but I thought that Rob Hurrell and Nathan Carter had outstanding games at London Welsh and they put themselves in the frame to play at Orrell."