Craig Mitchell sums up the Ospreys feelings after their European exit

Dai Young insists Wales' regions "come second" to the national team as Welsh rugby begins its Heineken Cup inquest.

Young's Blues, the Ospreys and Dragons all failed to reach the quarter-final of Europe's top club rugby tournament.

And if the Scarlets lose this weekend it will be the first time in four years that none of Wales' regions qualified for the Heineken Cup knockout stages.

"We have to be realistic," said Blues boss Young. "As we're not competing on a level playing field in Europe."

Wales' four regions ended months of political civil war and signed up to a new five-year "participation agreement" with the Welsh Rugby Union in 2009.

The peace deal, which ended potential high court action, agreed the WRU funded the regions in return for them helping shape how the Welsh internationals are managed by those four regions and that their stars are available for Wales squad sessions.

Dai Young inspired the Blues to the 2009 Heineken Cup semi-final

The agreement states each region is funded £6m per season by the WRU, but clubs must commit to developing Welsh players by restricting them to six non-Welsh qualified players in each regional squad.

The star-studded Ospreys' shock defeat at London Irish ended their Heineken Cup hopes and the Scarlets plucky defeat to English powerhouses Leicester Tigers all but ended their brave European run.

Nigel Davies' side do have a very slim chance of qualifying, but that is highly unlikely as they travel to French giants Perpignan on Sunday for their final Pool Five showdown.

The Blues' Heineken Cup quest ended before Christmas with back-to-back defeats against Northampton Saints while the Dragons have yet to win a game in this season's Heineken Cup.

The way Welsh regions are funded, coached and managed are now being analysed and debated in the wake of Welsh rugby's Heineken Cup failure this season.

But former Wales international Young, who guided his side to the 2009 Heineken Cup semi-final, has told pundits and supporters to have a reality check.

"We're all disappointed that it hasn't happened for us and there is a lot of hard work gone in across the regions," said Young.

"But people under-estimate how tough the competition is and how hard it is to get through to the quarter-finals.

"Nobody is going to accept this and say 'it is okay that no-one has qualified' - we're all going to work hard to make sure we qualify next season.

"But we all have to be realistic. We're not competing on a level playing field in Europe.

"If you look at teams that are likely to qualify, most of them have double the budgets of any of the Welsh regions and none operate a non-Welsh philosophy as we can only have six foreign players.

"We've been beaten by better teams. Should the Ospreys measure up to Toulon? No they shouldn't because they probably have three-times the budget.

"Are we will always going to be pushed to keep with Northampton? Yes we are.

"We're not competing on a level playing field . That is not an excuse, that is just a fact.

Scarlets emotions are summed up by Matthew Rees and Jonny Fa'amatuainu

"But we are not going to accept that as four regions. The regional rugby system is working for Wales.

"We've signed the participation agreement as to what is best for Wales - and the regions come second to that and I think people need to realise that.

"We're trying to build a player base, we've got four regions and want to want to keep our players in Wales which is healthy.

"But we do lose big chunks of our players for a long time."

All four regions lose their Wales internationals for their Six Nations campaign and the four autumn Tests in November.

Ospreys head coach Sean Holley admitted after his side's European failure that the Magners League champions will "seriously look at" signing such a huge amount of international players as they lose "momentum" in their international absence.

But Young, whose side beat big-spending Toulon in last season's Amlin Challenge Cup final, called for evolution not revolution.

"We're not a million miles away," said.

"We won the Amlin and been to a Heineken Cup semi-final and the Ospreys won the Magners League and have been to numerous quarter-finals.

"We're all disappointed but there are still a lot of positives in the regional system. We are producing young internationals coming through the system, we have to hurt a little bit and see the reality.

"We're going top keep working as together we've good people and good coaches involved right across the four regions.

"Now is the time to regroup and see where we can improve."

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