GLOUCESTER booked their place in the semi-final of the European Shield as Ebbw Vale lost their cool to concede four second half tries and have three men shown yellow cards.

Paul Matthews, Gareth Cull and Kevin Ellis were all sin-binned as Gloucester turned up the heat in the second half after the Steelmen had led 11-9 at half-time, having finished the first half in confident style.

But it was a different story after the break as the Steelmen lost their way, Gloucester found theirs and muscled Vale out of the match.

Just like the rain, the Gloucester pack began the game by driving into their Welsh opponents and French fly half Ludovic Mercier had an early attempt at a drop goal which swirled high and wide in the wind.

As expected it was a tough battle up front and Gloucester suffered some early injuries when first second row Adam Eustace had to be stretchered off with an ankle injury and then Italian prop Federico Pucciariello limped off the Kingsholm pitch with a groin injury.

But the home pack stamped their authority on the game's opening period as replacement second row Rob Fidler stole the ball from a line out and Gloucester drove up field from where Mercier landed the first of three penalties in the first 25 minutes for a 9-0 lead early on.

Virtually all of the first half was played in the visitors' half and touch kicks were not finding their mark, although the Steelmen were showing plenty of determination in some pretty awful conditions.

In fact Gloucester full-back Daren O'Leary can blame the heavy rain for losing sight of the ball as he made a hash of fielding a kick from Ebbw Vale scrum half Kevin Ellis and wing Andrew Wagstaff slid in for the game's opening try.

To be fair it was against the run of play, but really boosted Ebbw Vale's confidence as they started believing in themselves.

And Cull put them into a 11-9 lead with a penalty right on 40 minutes.

Ebbw Vale needed to score first after the interval to consolidate their lead, but it was Mercier who provided three further penalties as Gloucester comfortably moved into an 18-11 lead.

Despite warnings from coach Mike Ruddock to keep their composure, Vale were giving away too many penalties with some bemusing decisions coming from Italian referee Giulio de Santis.

Then the Steelmen shot themselves in the foot as first centre Paul Matthews and then fly half Gareth Cull were shown the yellow card in quick succession for what appeared to be professional fouls.

Gloucester had to take advantage with only thirteen Ebbw Vale players on the pitch and O'Leary made amends for his earlier mistake by winning the race to touch down the loose ball.

The Cherry-and-Whites moved the score up to 25-11 with Mercier adding the conversion and then they crossed for another try as former England scrum half Andy Gomarsall - named man of the match by TV pundit Jonathan davies - dummied left then threw a pass right for wing James Simpson-Daniel to score a converted try out wide.

Shortly after Ebbw Vale were at full strength again, but at 32-11 it was all virtually over with just under 20 minutes still to play.

Gloucester then really started to run riot as South African flanker Jake Boer dived over for their third try while Vale scrum half Kevin Ellis became their third player to receive a yellow card for body checking Gomarsall, his opposite number.

Deep into injury time, the home side completed the rout as replacement flanker James Forrester went over to make the final score 46-11 and leave Ebbw Vale facing a miserable journey home.