EBBW Vale's Mike Ruddock has questioned whether coaches should be allowed to speak to referees during the half-time break after Ebbw Vale went out of the European Shield with a 46-11defeat at Gloucester.

A disappointed Ruddock blamed the three second half yellow cards his side received for their defeat as Gloucester capitalised on having Paul Matthews, Gareth Cull and Kevin Ellis off the field - at one stage Vale had just 13 men on the park.

Gloucester scored 37 unanswered points as they blitzed the Steelmen to dominate the second half, but Ruddock questioned whether the home side's coach Phillipe Saint-Andre should have been allowed to argue in French with Italian referee Guilio de Santis at half-time.

The Cherry-and-Whites had been 11-9 down at half-time, but Ebbw Vale were constantly penalised in atrocious conditions during the second 40 minutes and their discipline ultimately cost them the match.

Ruddock said: "I went in with Phillippe when he spoke to the ref at half-time and obviously as they were speaking in French, I don't know if there was any influence and perhaps that is something that needs to be looked at.

"It was very hard to follow what they were saying and certainly the game seemed to change in the second half as we lost a number of players with yellow cards."

Saint-Andre said he had asked the referee to be more consistent in the scrums and line-outs, but agreed with Ruddock that the referee and the players deserved some sympathy for playing the game in terrible conditions.

Ruddock said despite his side leading after the first 40 minutes, he still didn't feel confident Vale would emerge victorious, despite having had Gloucester under pressure.

He said: "I didn't really think it was on at half-time, our best shot would have been to hold them in the first 20 minutes of the second half and then we might have had a chance, but you just can't play catch up rugby with 13 men on the field."

Even though they won there was still bad news for Gloucester who have lost their England A squad second row Adam Eustace for six months with a broken leg and he was being operated on in hospital while the game was still being played. *Pictured: Ebbw Vale skipper Chay Billen, down and out after Friday's European Shield KO to Gloucester at Kingsholm