Dean Ryan admitted he is running out of patience with his Gloucester players following their Heineken Cup defeat to 14-man Cardiff Blues.

The Kingsholm head coach, who has seen his team crash in big Guinness Premiership finals, semi-finals and top-of-the-table clashes as well as key Heineken Cup pool and quarter-final games in recent seasons, said he is prepared to make big personnel changes at the club.

Victory over Cardiff in yesterday's penultimate Pool Six match would have put Gloucester in a strong position to reach the last eight, at least as one of the best pool runners-up.

But their 16-12 home defeat against a side who had Tom James sent off for a first-half butt on Olivier Azam has left them needing to win at Biarritz on Friday and then hope other results go their way over the weekend.

And Ryan was seething after seeing his players repeat the same old mistakes.

"We have got to change – we are coming second best in these head-to-head contests," said Ryan.

"We didn't play well enough and weren't physical enough. That has happened in other games but we have got away with it but you can't get away with that at the highest level of the Heineken Cup."

Ryan was asked if it was time for a change on the coaching side at the club and said: "Coaches is a decision outside myself – but players I can change.

"I know who I am working with and this is not the first time I have had this conversation – it is not something we are not aware of.

"We have been in this situation before and it has not changed – but we cannot allow it to keep going on. We can't keep getting found out.

"I think we have got to look at the long-term and say that, for whatever reasons, we have got some things we lack as a club and have got to identify people who can bring those to us."

Ryan refused to blame defeat on the absence of skipper Mike Tindall, who was ruled out on Saturday with a dead leg and also missed both Gloucester's Premiership final defeat to Leicester in 2007 and their semi-final loss to the same side last year.

"We can't be dependent on one man – and if others haven't developed around him then that's what we are talking about," said Ryan.