FORMER Abertillery coach Les Edwards claims he has been "victimised" by the Welsh Rugby Union, after being banned for a year because his team left the field before the end of a match.

His Blaenau Gwent side left the pitch against Monmouth in a Welsh Division Six East game after having two players sent off and several yellow-carded.

After a hearing, to which Edwards claims he was not invited, he was banned and the club fined £500.

But Edwards says he was not aware of the consequences of his side's action, that health and safety issues were involved, and that he did not deserve such harsh punishment. An appeal against the ban failed, but Edwards has brought in a solicitor and aims to appeal again.

Edwards, 47, a successful coach for almost twenty years, said: "I want a total rescinding of the ban. I'm totally gutted. I have been made a scapegoat.

"The players were unhappy with the official, to put it mildly, and pleaded with me to take them off the field. They said they wouldn't play on.

"The players concerned have been around a long time, some having played for Newport, Newbridge or Abertillery.

"My main concern was for the safety of the players. What would my legal position and that of the club have been had I told them to carry on and someone had been badly injured? I feel I have been victimised.

"I know the WRU have rules and regulations, but I don't know them all and with no officials present had to make an instant decision.

"I've worked a long time in rugby for no financial reward or expectation, many of them coaching youngsters as well as senior teams, and I believe my record is very good. "I feel the WRU took the easy option in banning me."

Edwards won many championships and cups with teams such as Abertillery Youth, Crumlin and Blaenau Gwent and last season at Abertillery almost produced one of the great escapes in Welsh rugby history.

He took over when the club were clear bottom of the Welsh First Division and in the middle of an eight-match losing run.

But from March 16 to May 8 Abertillery won seven and drew one of their last ten games and would have survived had Blackwood not won their final game.

A WRU spokesman said because of a further appeal by Blaenau Gwent, it would be inapropiate to comment at this time.