Promising England prospect Adam Eustace suffered a broken leg in the ninth minute of Gloucester's 46-11 quarter final victory over Ebbw Vale in the European Parker Pen Shield at Kingsholm.

The second-row forward fell awkwardly as he attempted to take a line-out throw and will miss the rest of the season, including a likely call-up to the England A squad for the shadow Six Nations competition starting next month.

"It is very bad news for us as he was one of our key players especially in the line-out," said Gloucester coach Philippe Saint-Andre.

The injury knocked Glopucester out of ther stride, but they staged a dramatic second half turnaround after Saint-Andre had read the riot act in the dressing room at half-time.

It worked as Gloucester ran in 37 points without reply to storm into the semi-finals. But Ebbw Vale contributed to their own downfall by having three players, Paul Matthews, Gareth Cull and Kevin Ellis, sent to the sin-bin, alloweing Gloucester to grab tries through O'Leary, Simpson-Daniel, captain Jake Boer and James Forrester.

Nevertheless former Welsh captain Bryan Price was impressed with Ebbw Vale's defence despite the size of their defeat. "The three yellow cards handed out by the referee had a big influence on the game. My players deserve credit for their tremendous tackling and their ability to control Gloucester's driving play, otherwise they could have been facing a 60 point defeat."

Sale also booked their place in the semi-finals with a thrilling 25-20 victory over Bristol at Heywood Road.

The lead changed hands four times before Scotland international Bryan Redpath stole over in the corner just before the hour to give Sale a lead they defended until the last.

Sharks coach Jim Mallender selected England full-back Jason Robinson - making his Shield debut - at outside centre and although he had a relatively quiet night, it took just three minutes for him to make a telling contribution. From 30 yards out he sliced through the Bristol defence before handing onto full-back Vaughan Going to crash over. Steven Hanley also scored for Sale and Charlie Hodgeson converted two of the tries and kick two penalties to help secure a last-four place for the Manchester side.

But Bristol put up a fierce fight. Phil Christophers capitalised on some indecision in the Sale defence to score under the posts after his huge up-and-under was allowed to bounce. Argentine fly-half Felipe Contepomi added another try as well converting both trys and kicking a brace of penalties.