The cup tie was postponed from August Bank Holiday weekend with both clubs affected by unavailability and Durham County RFU, with this league fixture quite early in the season, allowed this double-header.

The Whites go into the match after recording 44-8 and 26-24 wins over Gosforth and Novocastrians in their last two fixtures.

City, however, will post a much stiffer test and lie in fifth place in the table, one position and five points ahead of Rovers.

Durham have won on their last two league visits to the New Friarage and will start as favourites to continue that run following their relegation from North One East at the end of last season. They narrowly lost at Barnard Castle last Saturday and so are now chasing not only Barney but Gateshead, Westoe and Consett for the championship and play-off spots.

If the Friaragemen can take the best bits from the last two weeks then there is no reason why they can’t get the win that would see them catch Durham on points and also make progress to the semi-final of the Cup. The White Shirts showed in the first half at Westoe that they can compete on level terms with teams tipped for promotion but to do so consistently requires them to show better defensive qualities than in the second half at Wood Terrace and the first half last week.

Missing players see Patrick O’Callaghan come out of the pack and onto the wing where he has played well in the past and Chrissy Harrison plays at scrum half. In the pack, Danny Cookland hooks between Steve Smith and Ian Pinchen and there is a new pairing of Darren Smith and Nathan Raynor in the second row.

Rovers: Rochester, O’Callaghan, Grand, Gunn, A Smith, M Barnfield, Harrison, S Smith, Cookland, Pinchen, D Smith, Raynor, Church, Wood, Whitehead (c). Subs: Little, Fawcett, Maguire