A NUMBER of personal duels will add spice to today's Tetley's Bitter Cup semi-final between Newcastle Falcons and Sale Sharks at Kingston Park.

At scrum half Gary Armstrong is up against another former Scotland captain in Bryan Redpath, in the centre ex-Falcon Martin Shaw will be out to upstage Tom May and Jamie Noon, but the real battle could be out on the wing.

That's where former Wigan Rugby League teammates Inga Tuigamala and Jason Robinson will clash, with the Samoan in no doubt about what Newcastle are up against.

"Jason can do things that other people can only dream about," said Tuigamala. "We will have our work cut out if he turns it on."

Robinson, a Great Britain international, was targeted by Clive Woodward as someone he would like to have in his England Rugby Union team.

Financial inducements were made for Robinson to switch codes this season, but unlike Tuigamala, who played for the All Blacks before his stint with Wigan, he does not have a background in Rugby Union and is still finding his feet.

The Falcons will be aiming to make sure he is not put into space, with their other winger, Michael Stephenson, likely to be the only one who can get close to matching Robinson for pace.

Robinson has admitted he owes a big debt to Tuigamala, who pointed him down the road to Christianity when he was a 21-year-old tearaway struggling to handle sudden stardom.

Newcastle won 27-13 at Sale in the third game of the season before Robinson joined the Sharks and home advantage makes the Falcons favourites to reach the final for the second time in three years.

There could be two former Durham University fly halves involved in the match, with David Walder continuing at full back for Newcastle while Charlie Hodgson is in Sale's squad of 24.

Both are in the England Development squad and the highly-rated Hodgson has been keeping Fijian international Niki Little out of the Sale side recently.

As it is being televised, the match kicks off at 1.45 and is followed on Sky by the other semi-final between Harlequins and Leicester.

The final is on February 24 instead of providing a climax to the season in early May, a further indication that the cup is being devalued.

Rob Andrew favoured a British Cup when working on his blueprint for the future of the game, but now feels that one possibility is for the 12 Premiership clubs not to enter the English knockout event until the last 16 stage.

Whatever the future holds, he is expecting a crowd of 6-7,000 at Kingston Park today, with Newcastle charging youngsters only £1 to get in.

"Every player is determined to reach Twickenham," he said. "Both sides like to play rugby - neither of us kill the ball - and given good weather it should be a cracking game."

l Darlington Mowden Park's fixture backlog might be slightly eased by Ryton's decision to pull out of their Durham Cup second round tie away to the holders on February 17.

After Gateshead and Hartlepool Rovers, Ryton are the third club to withdraw from the competition.

Mowden now hope to play either their twice-postponed home match against Wigton on that date or visit Macclesfield.

With Phil Harvey possibly out for six weeks, Durham University's Will Green continues at scrum half in today's rearranged match at Stockton.

Wingers Chris Mattison and Steve Jones will have late fitness tests, but both are doubtful. If they are ruled out, Mick Kent and Kevin McCallum will be on the wings with John Stewart at centre and Jonny Golightly at full back.

If things go well, Golightly could switch to his preferred position of fly half later in the game as Kevan Oliphant has been suffering from a heavy cold.

Del Russell is working, so Ian James will be in the back row with Shaun Cassidy providing cover on the bench.

Although it might ease their fixture problem, Mowden are not happy about Ryton pulling out of the cup, with team manager Jim Dyson saying: "It devalues the competition.

"We don't know what the answer is but perhaps it should be seeded in future."

England Sevens player Robbie Stewart will have his final two games for Darlington at Old Crossleyans today and at home to Goole next week before going to play in New Zealand for six months.

Skipper David Andrew is away for two weeks, but will be spared the selection problem on his return.

With Paul Beattie unavailable today, Lee Bowman returns in an otherwise unchanged side from the one which beat York 96-7 two weeks ago