Hostilities resume after the festive break but for neither Dundee High Rugby nor Kelso, who meet at Mayfield on Saturday, does the later part of the season hold any real opportunity of achieving promotion from BT National 1.
Both are comfortably mid-table, Kelso are two places below Dundee in eighth spot but a big win could in fact haul them above the home side.
There was nothing between them at Poynder Park in September, with the match ending 17-17, but having bumped Musselburgh out of the cup to progress to the quarter finals, Kelso will be buzzing.
However if Dundee can produce the sort of form that saw them lose to league leaders Selkirk by the narrowest of margins – 22-21 – in the final game of 2014, it could be quite a battle.
Progress to the quarter finals of the cup is an admirable achievement and one expected from BT Premiership sides but when a side from BT National 2 takes the scalp of the second placed outfit in National 1 to get to the last eight, that is a real cup upset.
Creating that upset was exactly what Howe of Fife did last week when they thumped GHA 31-7 with Chris Mason the hero as he grabbed all four tries in a memorable win.
They now face a huge challenge as they face Premiership leaders Heriots at Goldenacre in the quarter finals on February 14th.
Before that, there is the small matter of the league where they lead Hamilton by four points having played one game more and both sides would expect to come out on top on Saturday.
Hamilton play Greenock Wanderers while Whitecraigs are visitors to Duffus Park and having won 30-18 in their earlier encounter at Aurs Road, Howe will go into this one pretty confident.
Having started the season with some ambition, it has been a disappointment for East Kilbride to find themselves mid-table in BT National 3 but they will still pose a real problem for a Perthshire outfit who travel to Torrance House on Saturday.
They may be well away from the drop zone, but the 53-10 thumping at the hands of RHC in their re-scheduled league match last Saturday can have done little for their confidence.
Dunfermline fared little better last week at Park Farm when they went down 32-8 to Dumfries and will face another difficult one in their quest to avoid the drop when they go to RHC knowing that they fell foul of the capital side by 43-17 on their own patch at McKane Park in September.