HAVING watched his side push the European Cup semi-finalists for more than an hour before losing 34-17, Ebbw Vale coach Mike Ruddock, pictured, said there is plenty of promise for the future.

Vale had clearly done their homework and defended intelligently, nullifying Llanelli's dangerous and talented runners for most of the match until late tries from Ian Boobyer and Mark Jones gave the score line a weighted look.

Ruddock said the Boobyer try, gifted to the Scarlets after lock Ockert Booyse knocked on, was the turning point of the match.

He said: "We just gave away a very soft try. At 17-all, I was thinking that we might just make it difficult for them in the last fifteen minutes but it was a bit of a killer, especially after some outstanding defence on our line.

"We turned them over near our own line two or three times and there was some heroic defending but unfortunately we made the mistake, let them in and Llanelli started playing with more confidence.

"We missed a couple kicks at goal and perhaps we should have kicked the penalty we elected to run, we had a huge amount of territory in the first half and at the start of the second but Llanelli then began to get on top.

"We weren't panicking though, we kept our shape in defence and it was only when they scored the try that they were able to pull away."

At a key stage in the game, Booyse fumbled the ball near his own line under intense pressure from the Llanelli back row, but Ruddock pointed the finger of blame to his own side, rather than the Scarlets' flanker Simon Easterby.

He said: "Even if he was offside, we shouldn't have been running the ball from a yard out, we should have been kicking ourselves out of a pressure position which shows a little bit of inexperience, but I'm proud of the team.

"They showed a lot of character to come back after the early try.

"We put pressure on the line-out, we had planned to do that and wanted to put their ball carriers down, although obviously towards the end they began to cut lose."

And it appears that Llanelli knew they had a lucky escape, even according to a Stradey Park and Wales legend.

He added: "I spoke to Ray Gravell after the game and he said they had been very worried at half-time. But we did our homework and put pressure on them and stopped their flow.

"Only at the end did you manage to see Llanelli's real talent, because we had contained them for so long.

"We made a fist of it and played with a lot of pride, but Llanelli deserved their victory.

"I can see our team growing in confidence and I think we will come back stronger next season."