LEEDS bring their relegation battle to Guinness Premiership leaders Sale tonight and boss Phil Davies has laid down a fierce challenge to his men: go and prove yourselves against the best in the land.

The Tykes are five points adrift at the bottom of the Premiership after a dreadful start to the season, but they have begun to turn things around since Christmas and three wins out of five keeps their survival hopes alive.

And Davies said: 'This is a chance for us to go there and show what we can do against the best team in the country.

'We are looking to continue the momentum we have built up over the past couple of months.

'We are playing some exciting rugby and we know we need to go there and try to get the win.

'We have talked this week as a group about the talent that collectively we possess and that we have shown in patches in recent weeks.

Effort

'We need to produce a big effort. We have to win most of our remaining eight Guinness Premiership games - if we don't we've got a problem.

'The trademark of the Leeds team down the years has been our passion and mental toughness in hard situations and we are now combining that with a great deal of skill. Hopefully we can continue that tonight.'

Sale, though, pose 'formidable' opposition. The Sharks have included all their England stars and Davies is aware they will pose a threat right across the park.

'Playing Sale with all of their international players back from Six Nations duty does make it a tough challenge for us,' said Davies.

'Everyone knows how talented the likes of Charlie Hodgson, Mark Cueto and Andrew Sheridan are but when you come up against Valentin Courrent, Oriol Ripol and Lionel Faure you have to start from scratch with your understanding of their styles.

'Sale are a formidable team who play the right style of rugby. They have always had flair but they now have the power up front to secure consistently good ball for their backline.'