Former Queen's teammates John Nicholl and Jonny Patton ready to face each other in opposite dugouts in huge Ulster derby clash

The two former All Ireland League winners suffered their first defeats of the season last weekend and Ballymena are second in the league, a point and place above their hosts.

Nicholl admits friendships will be put aside for the 80 minutes.

“Jonny was playing at Queen’s when I joined, he was just a couple of years above me at school,” he said. “His father Keith Patton coached me at Queen's for two of three of the years I was there.

“Jonny moved to Dungannon and I knew him obviously through his dad. I lived with Timmy Smith who is the Dungannon team manager and Rory Patton who does something in their hierarchy, so we all sort of ran around together. I would have been out with the Dungannon boys quite a lot.

“Jonny and I are both club men at heart; he's been at Dungannon for a good few years and I've been at Ballymena.

“We've both been assistants for a long period of time. In a way, it's just nice to see both as the head coaches because it means, obviously, so much to him through his family and Ballymena means so much to me through my own family and friends.

“He's a good guy. I'm sure we'll share a drink after the game regardless, but on Saturday we come up against each other as rivals.”

Bryan Young helped Ballymena win the AIL in 2003 and is now the Dungannon forwards coach and a good friend of Nicholl’s.

“It will be fun to see Bryan there he is a good friend, so really looking forward to coming up against him and he's doing a great job there, and I'm really delighted to see him go well,” he added.

“He’s a top fella, he's got great rugby IQ; he loves the game, he's obsessed with it, so, yeah, fair play to him, he's done a great job so far.”

Nicholl is hoping the Braidmen can bounce back after last week’s defeat.

“The boys are looking forward to it, we're disappointed, losing at home to Wanderers,” he said.

“A game I actually thought we played really well in defensively. We were good, bar just a couple of mistakes where – credit to Wanderers – they just completely punished us.

“So what better way to get back on the saddle than a trip down to Stevenson Park. We're looking forward to it, we have a few boys back in who weren't available last week, so we're going down fairly full-strength.”

Queen’s welcome back No8 Tom Brigg and winger Jed Findlay who were both in South Africa for the home clash with Corinthians.

Dan Green moves back to out-half and Flynn Longstaff starts at tighthead prop.

There is a debut on the wing for last year’s Campbell captain Paul Henry.

Clogher Valley and Enniskillen clash for the first time in the All Ireland League at the Cran in a big Ulster derby in Division 2B North.

Both sides have won four and lost one of their opening five matches with Enniskillen second in the table a place above Clogher Valley on points difference.

Enniskillen Director of Rugby Trevor Whittaker said: “We’ve had a few derbies over the years. We had the All-Ireland Junior Cup Final which went their way so it’s three seasons since we’ve met them since they got promoted.

"But I think a lot of people are rubbing their hands together and looking forward to this one.

“They’ll know about our injury list and will be fairly confident that home advantage could count even though they have some injuries too. We’ll show our best hand and give it all we have.”

Leaders Malone travel to Malahide, Rainey visit Navan and Ballyclare are at Skerries.