BACK row forward Kier Hughes has revealed how everyone at Ebbw Vale is working around the clock to ensure they get back into the Premiership, writes Iwan Davies.

Vale can return to Welsh club rugby’s top flight by September 2014 if they retain the Swalec Championship in the coming season.

The Steelmen’s path to the Premiership was blocked for two years after the Welsh Rugby Union ring-fenced a new 12-team league last year.

But they can make their comeback if they also meet the required criteria set down by the union which includes having the necessary facilities, among other standards.

“We can’t wait to push for the Premiership in the coming season,” Hughes said.

“We’re having a good pre-season so far with 35 to 40 players training and we’ve got a lot of competition for places – which can only be good.

“It’s the goal to finish top of the league for the fourth time in a row.”

Since they were relegated from the Premiership in 2010, the Steelmen won successive Division One East titles before being crowned inaugural Championship winners.

They were runaway champions last season, sweeping nearly all before them by winning 25 out of 26 league games, losing just once and smashing through the 1,000 points barrier.

And they gave Premiership and Swalec Cup double holders Pontypridd the shock of their lives, unlucky to go down 23-22 at home to Dale McIntosh’s side in the quarter-finals.

Converted centre Hughes thinks it won’t be for lack of effort, both on and off the field, that Vale don’t realise their ambitions.

“We’ve had new floodlights at the ground and we seem to be moving in the right direction,” he said. “We want to be back playing among the best club sides in Wales.

“We are working hard to go that extra mile – which you have to do if you want to be the best.

“Everyone’s striving behind the scenes and hopefully we’ll get there at the end of next season.”

Ebbw play their first pre-season fixture at Nantyglo on Tuesday, August 20 and take on Carmarthen Quins (venue TBC) on Friday, August 23 and Builth Wells (away) on Saturday, August 31.

They kick off their Championship campaign against newcomers RGC 1404 on Saturday, September 7 and also take part in the National Sevens on Sunday, August 25 at Cardiff Arms Park.