To build on Chickenhouse's correct thought, the flying club/rental check ride is their (perhaps their insurer's) requirement, but not a licensing requirement. If your license is valid (from the point of view of the issuing authority) for the flight you are flying, and you are the pilot who signed out the aircraft as the intended PIC, then you log the time as the pilot. Anyone who tries to make you think otherwise is misleading you.
If your license is not valid for the flight, then you're not PIC, and cannot log the time as such, unless it is entitled under formal instruction you are receiving.