AN EBBW Vale rugby club have had new floodlight cabled ripped out from underneath their pitch.

RTB Ebbw Vale only recently installed the cabling last week to help improve their Hilltop Stadium Ground.

On Sunday morning, officials of the National League Division Three East A club arrived at the ground for an inspection meeting and soon discovered the theft.

A statement from their Twitter account said: "Recently, we have had some work done at the field to permanently install some cable so we can use the floodlights for training come the winter nights.

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(The aftermath of the theft)

"Unfortunately, some scumbags have taken it upon themselves to rip this cable out of the road and turf in our ground and cut it at the ends to steal the cable.

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"If anyone has any information on this and can help us catch the culprits please let us know."

John Boucher, the club secretary, said it would cost around £1000 to have everything dug back out and new cables laid.

“Without the floodlights we will have to pay out £70 a week to use the local authority all-weather pitch during the winter months,” he added.

The new cables were going to be used to for the floodlights to help with training in the winter as the ground area is so big.

Mr Boucher suspects that the cables were stolen to be sold on for scrap value.

The incident has been reported to police.

A spokesman said: "At approximately 10am on Sunday 28th July 2019, Gwent Police received a report of theft from the RTB Ebbw Vale rugby ground, in the Hilltop area of Ebbw Vale.

"It is believed that unknown perpetrators entered the ground sometime overnight between Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th July and removed approximately 50m of cabling.

"Officers are investigating and ask that if anybody has any information to call 101 quoting log 189 of 28/7/19. You can also direct message via the Gwent Police pages on Facebook or Twitter. Alternatively you can contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111."