Marty Holah is left down and out after the Ospreys' Thomond Park humiliation
Ex-Wales wing Adrian Hadley has slammed the Ospreys management and said that the Blues are now the top Welsh region.
"The positions with the Ospreys and the Blues have switched," said Hadley.
The Blues beat Toulouse 9-6 to set up a 3 May Heineken Cup semi-final against Leicester in Cardiff, while the Ospreys lost 43-9 in their quarter-final.
After witnessing that Ospreys hammering in Munster, Hadley appeared to point the finger of blame at their elite performance director Andrew Hore.
"The Ospreys need to take a long, hard look at themselves, but I wouldn't be pointing the finger at [coaches] Sean Holley and Jonathan Humphreys," he told BBC Sport Wales.
Martyn Williams celebrates the Blues' Heineken Cup quarter-final win
"They've had a difficult season, they've been in charge but they've known that someone is going to be coming in above them.
"They didn't know when and they didn't know who, and they already had someone above them who they probably didn't want there in the first place.
"The buck has to stop with the people who put [the coaching team] in place... is it a case of too many cooks?"
New Zealander Hore was a shock appointment at the Ospreys in December 2007.
He began a wide-ranging review of the region, and, when long-serving head coach Lyn Jones left last summer, Hore led the Ospreys' protracted search for a new man.
Sean Holley and Jonathan Humphreys have been in charge while a replacement was sought and the eventual choice - former Wales coach Scott Johnson - is due to arrive at the Liberty Stadium on Tuesday.
Holley, who was devastated by the record European defeat in Limerick, welcomed Johnson's imminent arrival.
"We're looking forward to having him on board, a new voice with fresh ideas that can hopefully move us forward," Holley told BBC Sport Wales.
"How much responsibility he wants to take immediately will be for Scott to decide.
"We're so ambitious, we've been working really hard and feel we've prepared well, but we're not doing it on the field.
"It hasn't been a nice place to be over the past three weeks, we're presiding over a team that's not playing to its potential... it's not what you're in the job for."
The mood at Blues could not be more contrasting, coach Dai Young having battled through some troubled times to re-establish the Cardiff side as major players on the European stage.
In Saturday's EDF Energy Cup final against Gloucester they have a chance to bring the first silverware to the Arms Park since Cardiff RFC won the Welsh-Scottish League in 2000.
Once you feel you have arrived, you have already taken a step backwards
Blues coach Dai Young
"Once you feel you have arrived, you have already taken a step backwards," said Young.
"We are not the finished article and, if we start thinking that way, then we will come unstuck quite quickly.
"The players have worked their socks off. They are a hugely-committed bunch who really want to get better."
Hadley sees a huge change from two years ago when the Blues were bullied off the Millennium Stadium turf by the Ospreys in an EDF Cup semi-final.
"The Blues have grown, they've become street-wise and hard, they want to fight for each other and for the shirt," Hadley told BBC Sport Wales.
"Two years ago the Ospreys were like that and they battered the Blues.
"It's gone full circle now, the Ospreys have lost that edge and the Blues are the real deal.
E-mail this to a friend 
Printable version 
Bookmark with:
What are these?