HE may be out of the Gloucester side to face Ebbw Vale tonight (7.05pm), but the Steelmen would have preferred to face rugby league convert Henry Paul in their European Shield quarter-final.

The New Zealand ace cost the Cherry-and-Whites £250,000 to bring his considerable talents to union, but after a nightmare performance against London Irish in the Powergen Cup defeat last weekend he has been dropped to make way at fly-half for Frenchman Ludovic Mercier.

On the surface this looks like good news for Vale, but the players are hardly welcoming the news with open arms.

Mercier is well-known for his kicking game and he will be looking to establish a strong position for his forwards to bring their driving line-out game into effect and take on Ebbw Vale up front in the manner that the Gloucester crowd are used to.

Their towering second-row captain Chay Billen is ready for the physical challenge of playing against the notoriously powerful Gloucester pack, but would prefer to face the running skills of Paul, rather than the merciless boot of Mercier.

He said: "We have analysed Gloucester's play on video a few times and Mercier suits their style better because he puts the forwards in the corners, where as Paul prefers to run it.

"We'd to be honest we'd have rather faced Paul, Mercier has got a hell of a boot, his drop-outs are long and he produces big touch-finders."

But Billen's side have produced some strong defensive performances this season and if they can get off to a good start they are capable of producing an upset and giving some of their expected 1,000 plus travelling supporters something to cheer about.

After all, the side have achieved coach Mike Ruddock's objective of reaching the Shield's quarter-final stage and can enjoy the tag of underdog with the only pressure on them to produce a good performance.

With Llanelli facing Bath away in the Cup and Pontypridd playing Saracens at Vicarage Road this weekend, Welsh clubs have been handed some tough away assignments in European competition, so Ruddock is hoping his Ebbw Vale side can strike the first blow for Wales tonight.

He said: "I believe both teams (Llanelli and Pontypridd) are capable of winning their matches, I think we have got the toughest match, especially after Gloucester's disposal of Cardiff in the cup last season (21-15 at the quarter-final stage) it just shows the strength of the team they have.

"It's the first time several players like Neil Edwards and Will Thomas have played in such a pressurised game, but then again they have had a similar experience playing in France and it will be interesting to see how they cope with that.

"There's no pressure on us, Gloucester have said they want to use this competition to get into Europe next season, so the pressure is on them, so it' s a great opportunity for us to show what we are all about in particularly in the living rooms of the Welsh rugby public." Captain Chay Billen echoed Ruddock's sentiments and added that the Ebbw Vale pack were looking forward to testing themselves against some of the best that England's Premiership can offer.

He said: "A few of the boys have played against English opposition before, particularly Iestyn and it will be good to use the game as a yardstick to compare ourselves to them and see what levels we aspire to, because the English forwards are the best in the Six Nations and Gloucester are highly rated in the English game."

"The win over Cardiff in December has given us some confidence it would have been a cruel month if we hadn't got a win, but the boys have had a good week in training." The talking is over and the players will take the field tonight with a place in the semi-final up for grabs.

For Ebbw Vale, the objective is to produce a performance to allow them to compete. If they can achieve that, then their belief can grow and anything can happen. But should they allow Gloucester's runners to come at them, they stand to be taught a very hard rugby lesson.

With Paul out, Darren O'Leary will play at full-back with the centre partnership being Robert Todd and their main strike runner Terry Fanolua.

Argentinian Diego Albanese has recovered from a hamstring tear and scrum-half Andy Gomarsall wins the scrum-half vote ahead of Dimitri Yachvili, but coach Phillippe Saint-Andre will only finalise his team just before kick-off.

Gloucester (probable): D O'Leary, D Albanese, R Todd, T Fanolua, AN Other, L Mercier, A Gomarsall, P Callazo, C Fortey, F Pucciariello, A Eustace, M Cornwell, J Boer, A Hazell, J Paramore.

Ebbw Vale: M James, A Takarangi, R Shorney, P Matthews, A Wagstaff, G Cull, K Ellis, M Jones, L Phillips, I Thomas, C Billen, N Edwards, K Tuipulotu, P Williams, W Thomas. Replacements: D Weatherley, R Watts, A Bevan, R Williams, D Penisini, J Evans, O Booyse.