Underbank Rangers Rugby League Club

Underbank favourite Dave Valentine believes Rangers have a giant point to prove when they lock horns with league-leaders Hemel Stags in the potential title-decider at The Cross this Saturday.

Both sides have been in scintillating form, hitting a mid-season high that has seen the pair enjoy an unbeaten run of ten games.

As well as been a vital fixture in the title race, the game holds another meaning for the West Yorkshire side.

Despite who lifts the title this September, it will be Hemel that take the biggest reward and join Championship One next season.

So Valentine is out to prove that Bank are worthy of semi-professional heights as they look to retain their tag as top-dogs in the National Conference League III by defeating the southern-outfit and spoiling their promotion party.

He said: “The feeling of ‘why do they get to go up to a higher level’ will be a real incentive for us. We want to prove a point that we are the best team in this league and that we have been for the past few years.

“But I think it will be a tight game. Previously they have been a solid outfit, solid all the way across the park and it has been a tough encounter playing against them and we have usually ended up winning in the second half.

“Last time we played Hemel at home it was one of the hardest games we have had. We were penned inside our own ten yard line for most of the first half so we know it will be tough.

“I am expecting a similar sort of game where it is just going to be a hard 80 minutes and hopefully if everything clicks; we should just have a better class of players in our team.”

The Bank prop is also hoping that home advantage will play its part but believes the team needs to work on a few issues exploited in last week’s tough derby battle against Bramley Buffaloes to put them in the best position.

“We are pretty much set and we are in good form at the moment. We will have to take that into the game but to be honest anyone that comes to Underbank tends to struggle. I’d be interested to know when the last time we got beat at home was because I can’t remember.

“The tough Bramley game last week helped show a couple of things we needed to clear up as well. The two tries they scored against us could have been avoided and we gave way too many penalties away. If we do the same against Hemel then we would probably end up losing,” he added.

Despite Bank’s long winning streak and array of top-class performances, Valentine is under no illusions that previous hard work would be overlooked if Rangers came out on the losing side this Saturday.

“We have been having some games where we have won by quite a lot but that all means nothing if we lost to Hemel.

“So hopefully we can learn from those errors last week because we are playing good at the moment and if we carry on with what we are doing in attack and playing like we can do, then I think we will be okay on Saturday.”