WHILE top Welsh clubs are asking their players to withdraw from international duty against Scotland, Ebbw Vale coach Mike Ruddock says his side are proving their case for inclusion in the future of Welsh rugby.

Ruddock's side went down 26-16, after holding a 16-0 half time lead against Cardiff, and only a stern fight back led by Iestyn Harris prevented the Steelmen from doing a rare double, having won the return fixture 22-20 in December.

But while their young squad survives on a shoe-string budget, richer clubs are demanding more money from the WRU to support their over-inflated wage bills.

He said: "I feel we are definitely a Premiership side, we are competitive at this level, everyone can see that so when you talk about cut backs and such like it's very frustrating because I feel that this side will grow over the next couple of years and be strengthened hopefully by players coming to us.

"There are some relatively unknown players here who are putting themselves on the map and that augers well for Welsh rugby, because without clubs like Ebbw Vale, where are the other players going to come from?

"It's frustrating, but all this talk about players striking is a nonsense, we have got to be careful we don't fall into a political trap, we have got to support Steve Hansen and make sure we give him the best available players and the best available structure."

Ruddock was far from happy with the refereeing of Phil Fear and made a point of going to see him to discuss what appeared to be inconsistent refereeing. He was first to admit that his side gave away far too many penalties, but added they were not helped by some of Mr Fear's decisions.

Ruddock said: "Overall I was disappointed with our discipline, we gave away far too many penalties both in the first and second half.

"I spoke to the referee, because I felt Cardiff played to the edge of the off-side line and I was disappointed that the communication microphones in the flags weren't working. Those things are critical to people like myself who could be out of a job if you are not getting the right results.

"I felt our lead could have been enough at half-time, it was all about getting control of the ball, getting the positions and keeping our discipline, if you don't you either give away field positions or points and I couldn't believe everytime we got a good position we seemed to give it away.

"You have to mark Cardiff highly for their first try, we had a stranglehold on the game up until that point, but if we had kept our discipline we wouldn't have given Cardiff the momentum to keep coming into our half."