EBBW Vale coach Mike Ruddock (pictured, right) is hoping that their fans will help turn Gloucester's Kingsholm ground into a mass of red, white and green on Friday night in their European Shield quarter-final clash.

With the two sides just across the border from each other, they are geographically close and with the history of several internationals, including Byron Hayward and Kingsley Jones, having played for both clubs, it promises to be a typical England-Wales battle, with Ruddock hoping the Vale fans turn out in their droves.

Kingsholm is a notoriously difficult place for sides to visit with their partisan crowd giving their traditionally tough pack a psychological advantage.

But the Ebbw Vale pack has plenty of talent and size with Wales international Iestyn Thomas ably supported by Wales A locks Chay Billen and Neil Edwards, with back-row forwards Will Thomas and Paul Williams both in fine form this season.

Vale were given a wake-up call on Saturday in the Principality Cup win over Llandovery after they trailed the Welsh First Division side 15-6 at half-time before fighting back to a 43-15 win.

But Ruddock thinks the tough cup match will have done his players some good. Ebbw Vale will start the game as underdogs behind Gloucester, but the West country side will be missing British Lion Phil Vickery, French international Olivier Azam and England cap Trevor Woodman, though they will still provide a very physical challenge.

"It was good in a way that we had a tough game against Llandovery on Saturday as it brought us down to earth and showed that the underdog can get stuck into the more fancied team," said Ruddock.

"We can really take an opportunity and that is what we are looking to do on Friday night and be very positive.

"Our pack has gone well this season and the forwards should relish the challenge, but it will come down to how well we can control the pace of people like Henry Paul.

"We need to improve our away form, but that is the beauty of the challenge, it's a bit of a cup final and it's not a long way from Ebbw Vale.

"This means we will get a huge amount of support and I'm sure that'll help."