Precious bonus points will be at stake today and tomorrow when the second phase from the 2012 BOV National League will be played at the National Pool.

The competition retained the same format of the previous year with the preliminary round to be followed by classification matches that will determine the starting berths and points attached to each position for the five teams in the Premier League and the four in Division One.

The top billing is reserved for tomorrow evening when league champions Neptunes Emirates will face up to Sliema McDonald’s in the Reds’ first real test to their title defence after three comfort-able wins in the preliminary group phase.

Both Neptunes and Sliema topped their sections but for the latter things were more compli-cated after conceding an 8-7 defeat in their last match to San Ġiljan Giuseppe’s.

As a consequence, Sliema finished tied in first place with the Saints and Exiles Ferretti.

However, the Blues were still ranked as top seeds in Group A because of a better goal difference in direct encounters.

San Ġiljan made sure of their place in the top flight thanks to the runners-up spot but third-placed Exiles will have to figure in a decider against Marsascala Mor€ to avoid playing in Division One this summer.

Points obtained in the group phase will not be carried forward and, instead, five points will go to the winner of the Sliema-Nep-tunes clash and three to the losers of this match.

San Ġiljan and Sirens will be vying for two points with one going for the defeated side while Exiles and Marsascala only have a berth in the Premier League to fight for in their decider.

Programme

Today: 18.00 Exiles vs Marsascala; 19.15 San Ġiljan vs Sirens.

Tomorrow: 18.00 Otters Nivea vs Valletta Sterling; 19.15 Sliema vs Neptunes.