Ulster Senior Cup Preview: The draw for the fourth round of the Northern Bank Ulster Schools' Cup has produced a number of cracking contests, most notably defending champions Royal Belfast Academical Institution travelling to highly-fancied Royal School Armagh.

Both sides will be making their debuts in this season's competition under the seeding system, which has been tinkered with slightly since its introduction last season.

Following a round-robin preliminary round which saw Wellington College emerge triumphant, 12 sides contested the second round, with the six winners joined by 10 seeded sides in the third round.

Now big guns RBAI, RS Armagh, Methodist College, Belfast, Campbell College, Belfast, Sullivan Upper, Wallace High School, Royal School Dungannon and Ballymena Academy are set to enter the fray when the fourth round takes place on February 4th.

And in a twist of fate, six of them have been drawn against each other, leaving the door open for some of the smaller schools to make the quarter-finals.

On top of the RBAI v RS Armagh clash, last season's finalists and the most successful side in the history of the competition, Methodist College face a tricky home tie against Ballymena Academy.

Methodist have underlined their potential this season with victories over Blackrock College (away) and Terenure College (home) in friendlies in January, while Ballymena have also enjoyed a fine record going into the tournament. Two other seeded sides, Sullivan Upper and Campbell College, meet at Fox's Field in Belfast, and these match-ups will ensure that three of the fancied sides will not make the last eight.

Elsewhere, all eyes will be on the progress of Belfast High School, who will travel to either Bangor Grammar or Portora Royal, having produced the performance of the third round with a 21-20 victory over Banbridge Academy.

Rainey Endowed School will travel to face Larne Grammar after an imperious display in a 20-0 victory over Foyle and Londonderry College. Larne produced a last gasp 19-17 win over Portadown College thanks to Ryan Garrett, who banged over an injury-time conversion to seal a nail-biting victory.

Fourth-round:

Ties to be played on February 4th:

Campbell College v Sullivan Upper

Portora or Bangor v Belfast High

Methodist v Ballymena Academy

Wallace High v Coleraine AI

Regent House v BRA

Royal School Armagh v RBAI

RS Dungannon v Ballyclare High

Larne GS v Rainey Endowed