Close bond between duo shelved for 80 minutes as Malone and Ballynahinch meet in Senior Cup

Cave is captain of the Belfast side while Craig is head coach at Hinch, come January the two will be in the dugout trying to help Sullivan Upper lift the Schools’ Cup for the first time.

Naturally there has been a lot of good-spirited ribbing between the two coaches of the Holywood school in the run up to the last-eight cup clash.

“There was a bit of banter in training on Monday when Adam decided to jump on my back, I don’t know if he was trying to injure me or he just doesn’t realise the weight he has got to now,” joked Cave.

“The banter is good, it has been all fun, I’m sure well have a pint after the game, as I said to Adam, I just can’t wait to be privileged enough to share the pitch with a 1A team.

“It has been a bit of a change from where it has been in the last few years, we have tried to build momentum of the past five games, and we were unlucky against Dungannon last weekend, they’re a good side.

“We have another good side coming to Malone on Saturday so it should be a good Christmas game.

“We just have to make it uncomfortable for them, they have been going well in their league but they are away from home and we have to make Malone a hard place to come and pick up the win.”

Hinch full back Conor Rankin has also been coaching at Sullivan, adding an extra bit of spice to the game.

“Dave is really a talisman for Malone and Conor is coaching with us so the two of them have been having a bit of banter, it’s all friendly rivalry and it is great in rugby that you can be friends off the pitch and rivals on it,” stated Craig.

Hinch have won the cup four times in the last decade but fell at the first hurdle last season.

“We are looking forward to getting back to the competition, we were disappointed in our performance last year and we’re looking forward to trying to make amends for that,” Craig stressed.

“We have been pocketing that from last year, waiting on this next round to come. so hopefully we can put on a performance.”

Hinch are in the play-off spots in the top flight of the AIL despite losing their last two games and Craig knows it won’t be easy at Gibson Park.

“There have been few one percenters that we have been getting wrong and when you get it wrong at that level you get found out,” he continued.

“We’re not far away and the scorelines probably don’t reflect the nature of the game but we have to make sure we keep that tighter.

“It is a great ground, we haven’t been there in a while and we’re looking forward to getting back there. They have a few good players in their team, so we’ll have to be on it.

“We’re not taking this competition lightly and we’ll be as strong as we can.”