Heworth will be gunning for revenge when they travel to New Earswick All Blacks in the York and District Cup semi-final on Saturday.

The Arriva Trains Conference Division Two side will be hoping to get their own back on the CMS Yorkshire Senior division outfit who overturned them 4-6 at Elm Park Way on the first day of the season to lift the Accident Cup.

Heworth coach Brendan Carlyle said: "They beat us in the final last year so hopefully we will be looking to get a bit of revenge."

The game could also prove an unwelcome distraction from the league exploits of the Villagers, where they are still struggling in the bottom two of the division despite a superb 26-6 win against Cottingham Tigers on Saturday.

Carlyle said: "In a way, we could have done with the league games continuing because we had a good win on Saturday and it would have been nice to carry that on, but that will have to wait another week."

But being the underdog suits the All Blacks, according to spokesman Charles Rollinson.

He said: "We will go into the game as underdogs because they are a Conference team and we are from a lower league but that suits us."

The All Blacks will be without influential skipper Jez Petch, who is unavailable, but welcome back prop Mark Boitoit after illness.

The Villagers, meanwhile, are still suffering from a lengthy injury list including Nathan Witty, who is out for the rest of the season with a triple jaw break, and Carlyle said none of the players nursing injuries would be ready to make a return.

He said: "It should be a similar team to the one that started last week. None of the injuries we have got are going to clear up in time, but the 'A' team don't have a game this week so we will have one or two extra faces to pick from."

Kick off at New Earswick is at 2pm.

Updated: 09:08 Thursday, February 05, 2004