THE weekend’s rugby action opens tonight at Fort Matilda when Wanderers Ladies face Cartha Queen’s Park under the floodlights with a 7.30pm kick-off.

A good turnout is expected to cheer on the Greenock girls in what is only their third ever fixture and a cordial invitation is extended to local women who may be considering taking up the sport to come along and get a flavour of what they can expect if they choose to get involved.

Captain Caitlyn Haldane will lead her team and with Cartha being a well-established side in the Scottish ladies’ rugby set up, tonight’s match will be a good test for the local girls to see how much progress has been made over the close and pre-season period.

Elsewhere at Fort Matilda head coach Graham Knox does not have his problems to seek as he continues to contend with serious personnel issues ahead of his side’s final pre-season friendly match tomorrow against Glasgow High/Kelvinside at Fort Matilda, which kicks off at 3pm.

Wanderers’ entire pre-season programme has been blighted by the non-availability of key personnel to the extent that last weekend’s selection for the match against West of Scotland could most accurately be described as a development side, as opposed to a legitimate first choice top team.

Injury, holiday, work and family commitments have all combined to rob Knox of many of his top players.

And with the competitive season due to start next Saturday with a difficult away tie in the first round of the Scottish Cup at Peebles, the portents are less than favourable that the locals will be able to equip themselves with sufficient personnel in terms of experience and ability to secure the victory.

The normally sanguine Knox remains upbeat and confident though that he and his coaching team of Alasdair Hunter and Jimmy McKenna can mould together a squad capable of challenging favourites Peebles on their own patch at ‘The Gytes’ next weekend.

Tomorrow’s fixture is the final dress rehearsal for that game and once more Wanderers face lower league opposition. The hope is that the forwards dominate proceedings, thereby allowing the backs to go through their full panoply of moves and in doing so instil some confidence and self-belief ahead of what is without doubt one of the most important seasons in the club’s history.

Skipper Murray MacDonald, Matt Gray, Ryan McGhee and Dougie Smith are all set to return to action so a vast improvement is expected in the collective performance tomorrow.

Wanderers are sponsored by Texas instruments.