Boss Danny Wilson is hoping he can help a bit of magic from London Welsh's 1985 John Players Cup run rub off on his players.

National One side Welsh have a brilliant chance of reaching the last eight of the EDF Energy Cup on Sunday when they on National Two side Cambridge in a fifth round tie at Old Deer Park.

Welsh reached the final of the current cup's predecessor 24 years ago, their only major final to date, but lost 24-15 to a formidable Bath side at Twickenham.

In their back row that day was Kevin Bowring, who went on to coach the Wales national side and become the RFU's elite development coach, in between teaching Wilson in a sports coaching degree at UWIC.

Wilson said: "I don't think there's anybody out there better than Kevin in coaching development.

"I learned a great deal from him over a number of years and still speak to him whenever I can."

But Wilson has warned his troops not to take Cambridge lightly, despite a division separating the teams, as Cambridge are flying high in third in National Two.

In fact, Wilson is taking the tie so seriously he was going to pick his squad from a friendly against Welsh giants Newport-Gwent Dragons on Monday.

However, that game was called off as London Welsh were unable to travel due to the heavy snowfall which hit the country.

But Wilson said: "We certainly won't be taking Cambridge lightly because they are playing extremely well in Division Two.

"They are consistently playing some good stuff and have some very good ex-professionals in their ranks.

"I'm especially looking forward to catching up with their fly-half/centre Craig Evans, who was at Cardiff while I was forwards coach there."

However, despite the Dragons friendly being called off, Wilson reckons Welsh had the best-possible preparation last Saturday by beating Newbury Blues 40-12.

It meant Welsh were not left licking their wounds too long after the previous week's loss at Leeds.

Wilson added: "It was important for us to bounce back after Leeds, we targeted five-points and achieved it.

"We've scored 40 points against Newbury twice in two weeks, and that's no mean feat."

First-half tries from Peter Murchie, Mike Powell and Paul Sampson saw Welsh take a 22-5 lead into the half-time break.

And they did not let their feet off the gas after the break either, with Matt Corker running in a further try and Sampson adding a second.

Three conversions and penalties from Mark Harris completed the rout.