Blues players celebrate their Amlin Challenge Cup semi-final success
Dai Young has challenged his Cardiff Blues to create history and become the first Welsh side to win a Euro title.
Wales stars Leigh Halfpenny and Gethin Jenkins scored as the Blues beat Wasps 18-15 to set up an Amlin Challenge Cup final showdown with Toulon on 23 May.
"The focus has got to be the first Welsh region to win a European competition," insists head coach Young.
Cardiff starred in the first Heineken Cup final in 1996 but suffered defeat to another French side Toulouse.
The inaugural Heineken Cup final is the only time a Welsh team has qualified for Europe's top rugby competition showpiece.
The Blues, though, missed out on qualification for last season's European finale on penalty-kicks in the semi-final after their 26-26 draw with Leicester.
Pontypridd are the only other Welsh side to qualify for the Challenge Cup final - Europe's second-tier tournament - which they lost to Sale 25-22 in the 2002 showpiece.
Caerphilly also played in a European final when they were hammered 40-12 by French side Castres in 2003 but that was in Europe's third-tier European Shield competition.
Now the Blues begin to prepare to make Welsh rugby history when they take on French Top 14 play-off contenders Toulon, who beat Connacht on Friday.
Jonny Wilkinson's star-studded Toulon will only have to travel 25 miles to Marseille's Stade Velodrome for the final while the Blues will have to fly to the south of France.
"If we're going to win this competition, we're going to have to do it the hard way," acknowledged Young.
On our day we're as good as anyone,
Cardiff Blues number eight Xavier Rush
"We had to go to Newcastle to win, we've had to come to Wasps and win so why not go and beat Toulon in their own back yard as well.
"But this team have the self belief and mental toughness to go to places and win.
"It is going to be a great atmosphere, a great occasion and one we're looking forward to.
"Toulon are an excellent team and they have shown that all year in the French championship. They are full of international stars but so are we.
"We're really thrilled to be in a European final but we'd rather be in the Heineken Cup final."
Captain Paul Tito insists the Blues' Euro final this year "does not make up for the heartache" of losing so cruelly in the semi-final of last year's Heineken Cup.
But the experienced New Zealander has praised his side for their end-of-season transformation.
"At Christmas we were battling to qualify for the Heineken Cup in the Magners League," he said. "And now we're in the final of the Amlin."
The Blues have lost just twice in 13 games and could seal a place in the new Magners League end-of-season play-offs should they beat defending league champions Munster at the Arms Park next Sunday and deny them a bonus point.
"Obviously it means a lot to me but credit has got to go to the players," Young told BBC Sport.
"Certainly over the last month-to-six weeks they've been outstanding and they thoroughly deserve to be in the final."
Young singled out number eight Xavier Rush and admitted it will be almost impossible to replace the experienced New Zealander when he leaves for Ulster at the end of the season after he carried the Welsh region into the final at rain-soaked Adams Park.
"Xavier was outstanding," said Young.
"He got us on the front foot, which was always going to be the most important thing on a day like this.
"Whichever team got going forward would control the game and Xavier did that for us today. He will be very difficult to replace.
"Obviously we would have preferred a dry track because we have got the players to move the ball - but to win any comp you have to have a B-game as well as your A-game.
"The players deserve all the credit they get. It was never going to be pretty in these conditions but we showed great maturity.
"It could have gone either way at the end but I think we played most of the rugby."
Full-back Ben Blair kicked eight points to add to Halfpenny and Jenkins' tries and now Rush hopes to sign off after five-year at the Blues on a high in the Amlin final.
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