EBBW Vale must wait on the fitness of centre Nick Wakely and lock Neil Edwards before naming their side to face Pau European Shield quarter-final first leg at Eugene Cross Park tomorrow (2pm).

Wakely was forced to miss the pre-Christmas 20-8 win over Llanelli at Eugene Cross Park with a damaged ankle and has also been sidelined from the Boxing Day defeat at Cardiff as well as last Saturday's impressive 10-6 win at Pontypridd.

Ebbw coach Mike Ruddock is keen to include him in the side, but is also waiting to see if Wales A lock Edwards, who provided Ebbw with an impressive flow of line-out possession at Pontypridd, recovers from a cold.

If Wakely and Edwards don't get over their ailments in time, centre Ed Binham will continue to deputise, while second row Peter Sidoli will probably partner South African Ockert Booyse in scrum.

Ruddock is not expected to finalise his side until later this afternoon, but even if Wakely is fit he will probably play on the wing at the expense of New Zealander Aaron Takarangi.

The squad have been familiarising themselves with a video supplied to them by Bridgend, who put Pau out of the Parker Pen Challenge Cup and into the European Shield last Autumn.

Pau have all the attributes you would expect of a typical French side but after wins over Pontypridd and Llanelli in the last few weeks, Ruddock said the key ingredient for his side has been their confidence.

He said: "Don't worry, I've brought them back down to earth this week, but the win over Pontypridd was the first time we have played for the full 80 minutes.

"Even in our win over Llanelli before Christmas, there was 15 minutes when we dropped off the pace."

The Eugene Cross Park pitch will be inspected at 9am on Saturday and if it is frozen, Newport's Rodney Parade ground will be examined as an alternative.

Should that also fail, the same inspections will be carried out on Sunday. Failing that the two sides will play in Pau next weekend in a winner-takes-all match.

Team. Ebbw Vale: R Davies, N Wakely, A Takarangi, E Binham, R Shorney, A Bevan, S Mitchell, B Shelbourne, A Black, L Phillips (c), M Jones, N Edwards, P Sidoli/O Booyse, C Billen, K Tuipulotu, T Morris/P Williams