$re = '/(?<=[a-z])-(?=[a-z])/';
$str = '-fjdkls six-nation-golden-cup-award - jfkdl-
a-b-c-4-_';
$subst = "\\-/";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$result;
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php