UNDERBANK Rangers moved above Featherstone Lions in the Conference table with a hard-earned 28-14 win, keeping them in touch with the top four.

The platform for victory was strong defence, with Rangers led superbly by second rower Sam Housley, prop Dave Valentine, who put in 40 tackles, and Craig Williams, with the team missing just 10 tackles during the game – which was refereed by former Giants player Jamie Bloem .

The reversal made it four consecutive defeats for the Lions, who had new coach Gordy Long in charge for his first game.

Long must have been impressed by the efforts of his charges in the second period after trailing by 12 points at half-time.

Rangers had Alex Chatterton, James Smith and Sam Dalby all missing, plus their three overseas players were all absent through holiday commitments, but Paul Horsfall returned to the squad.

Underbank dominated the first half and opened the scoring after four minutes when centre Adam Ryder powered over for the first of a brace of tries after receiving a long pass from the impressive Neil Barrett.

Stand off Barrett added the goal, but Rangers then struggled to finish off their excellent approach work as numerous chances went begging.

To show their anxiety they chose to kick a penalty attempt midway through the half, but Barrett put the ball wide of the posts.

Featherstone started to get a foothold in the game and were looking likely to tie the scores when Rangers doubled their lead after 32 minutes.

Barrett charged down a Mark Spears kick through, hacked the ball ahead, re-gathered and raced 60m, but just as he was about to score he was collared by the cover defence.

However, Barrett had the vision to offload to Richard Aka for the winger to notch up his eighth try of the season.

Barrett took a knock as he passed. Craig Williams added the goal to Aka’s try.

Featherstone started the second half in better shape as their pack, with props Danny Richardson and Mark Kear to the fore, punched big holes in the Underbank defensive line.

It was no surprise that the pressure told as centre Josh Blackmore raced through and found scrum half Paul Watson on the inside with a neat pass for the half back to score. Rich Frankland added the goal to put the Lions within six points of their hosts.

Soon after centre Stu Davies took a long Spears pass to hold off three defenders for a tremendous try. Crucially Sam Wilson couldn’t convert, but the Lions were back in the hunt as they now trailed only by two points.

Underbank regrouped and stepped up a gear to see off their valiant opponents.

After a Lions handling error, loose forward Lee St Hilaire picked up from the base of the scrum and raced over from 20m out.

With Barrett’s successful goal Rangers stretched the lead to eight points and that became 14 soon after as Valentine off-loaded to Napoleoni Vinaka for the Fijian to stretch out in the tackle and score his first of the season – Barrett converted.

However, the Lions weren’t finished and after hard-working Rangers full back Will Midgley was penalised for not playing the ball correctly, a strong surge from the Lions’ Brian Sutton saw the back row forward race over.

This was temporary respite for Featherstone as Rangers swept down field for Ryder to out-muscle his opposite number and race clear for his second of the day to complete a resounding win for the home side.

Underbank Rangers: Midgley; Bradshaw, Mitchell, Ryder, Aka; Barrett, Berry; Valentine, Carroll, Vinaka, Housley, C Williams, St Hilaire. Interchange: Barker, Jones, Littlewood, Machen.