MALVERN Rugby Club face a busy weekend with important matches on Saturday and Sunday.

Tomorrow, Malvern will play Market Bosworth in a promotion play-off to decide who will secure a place in Midlands One next season. On Sunday they will entertain Luctonians in the semi-finals of the North Midlands Cup.

With the county cup final scheduled for Sunday, May 8 at Stourbridge, there were no alternative dates available for the semi-final.

Malvern have agreed to honour both fixtures, however, even though it will mean some players playing two matches in a weekend.

And Malvern's director of rugby, David Robins, was expecting a tough play-off clash.

"We will be up against a side which boasts, we believe, ex Leicester Lions and Leicester Academy players," he said.

"They only lost two games all campaign and lost out on top spot purely on points' difference.

"The players are determined to get the club back into Midlands One and Saturday is a one-off chance to do so -- it will be like a cup final.

"We ask all rugby supporters in Malvern to make the trip. The lads have played some tremendous rugby this season and deserve to be cheered on by as big a crowd as we can mus-ter."

Robins was also determined that the North Midlands Cup should be taken seriously.

"We are determined that the competition should not be devalued by withdrawal as happened last year," he added.

"We will honour the fixture with a team which will feature several players who have had little exposure to first team rugby.

"This obviously makes us under-dogs, but Luctonians themselves were in a similar fix a few years ago and sent a willing second string. We look forward to renewing old rivalries and friendships with them."

The winners of the Malvern v Luctonians game will meet Whitchurch, who have already beaten Bromsgrove, in the county cup final.

The North Midlands Cup has added significance this season as only the winners will qualify to represent the county in next season's Powergen Cup.

Previously North Midlands had three qualifying places in the following season's Powergen Cup which were allocated to the two county cup finalists plus the highest-ranked league club outside the National Leagues.

But the number of non-National League club places in the Powergen Cup next season has been reduced from 64 to 32. North Midlands' representation has been cut by two-thirds.