"THEY were the best side I have ever played against" said a glum Tyron Morris after the Ebbw Vale flanker saw his team's hopes of reaching the Parker Pen Shield semi-final dashed in a 63-17 Pau hammering.

Ebbw Vale blew their chance of reaching the European Shield semi-finals for the first time in their history after winning the first-leg 29-3 at Newport's Rodney Parade last Monday and taking a hefty 26-point advantage to Pau.

But Vale were brutally punished by a powerful French side who blitzed them with 42 points in as many minutes, running in six first-half tries.

The French had only made two changes from the side that lost in Wales last Monday in international inside centre Damien Traille and Imanol Hari.

Having beaten Pontypridd 10-6 at Sardis Road at the start of the month, coach Mike Ruddock is striving to achieve a consistent level of performance from his Steelmen.

But, after preventing the opposition from scoring in their last two matches, Vale were blown away. Ruddock said: "It was a major setback. We had this term 'hero to zero' where one week we play to a good level and then drop off our performance.

"We had been working hard to avoid that situation and reach a consistent level of performance, but it just didn't happen.

"The players are disappointed that they have let the club and chairman Marcus Russell down and we have missed a good opportunity to reach a European semi-final."

Vale missed the line-out consistency of Wales A lock Neil Edwards, out with a shoulder injury, as their set-pieces struggled badly under pressure from the French.

Ruddock added: "The first-half was very poor. We missed Neil Edwards' line-out organisation and we struggled at the the set-piece.

"It happens sometimes. You can't explain it. We had done our homework but we don't have that many experienced players and we were exposed in our missed tackles."