Enniskillen Royal Grammar School face a trip into the unknown when they play Dromore High in the third round of the Danske Bank Schools Cup.

The Enniskillen school are playing the tournament for the first time under their new name, and will face the County Down school who have reached the third round in their first attempt at the competition.

Dromore confirmed their place with a narrow 14-12 replay win over Banbridge Academy, and although Enniskillen avoided the big names in the draw coach Rhys Botha knows they will still have to be at their best if they are to progress to round four.

“Dromore are a completely unknown entity and we have no idea what is waiting for us,” he admitted.

“It might be their first ever schools cup competition but that doesn’t mean that they are not going to be a good side. We have never played them before but we played Banbridge at the start of the year and we beat them, and they beat Banbridge as well, so a win is definitely not a given unfortunately.”

Enniskillen started their season in fine style, but their form has tailed off in recent weeks. With a youthful side to choose from, Rhys hopes they will rise to the occasion and reproduce the rugby that saw them rack up a long unbeaten run at the beginning of the campaign.

“We started off really well this year and went six or seven matches unbeaten,” he said.

“I don’t know now if the opposition have stepped up their game against us but we on are on the back foot with a couple of losses recently which isn’t great, but hopefully preparation will go according to plan this week and we will pick up our play and pick up a win on Saturday. Everybody is really looking forward to it.”

Enniskillen will be hoping that their dominant forwards will be the driving force behind the team as they push for a long awaited schools cup win.

“There is no doubt that our forwards are our strength at the moment,” admitted Rhys.

“We have a very young side. I am only losing about five out of the entire squad of about 45 for next year. We have the possibility of a very, very good backline but they are very inexperienced. If they can click they will be great but at the moment the forwards are our stronger part of the team. We have got some big ball carriers and as a pack of forwards they always will be influential in a match.”

Part of that pack is captain and number eight Andrew Crawford, and he is hoping that despite numerous schools cup debutants they will be able to produce their best form on Saturday.

“There is a bit of pressure on with it being the first year of the new school, but it is just another game of rugby at the end of the day and we just have to go out and do what we have to do,” he said. “It’s Dromore’s first year and we have never played them or heard anything about them so we are going in a bit blind I suppose, but we had good form at the start of the season. We had a bit of a dip, but we are coming back to full strength again and we would like to think that we are ready to go and we are up for the challenge.”