Ospreys coach Allen Clarke praised his Heineken Champions Cup chasers as he claimed they deserved their play-off showdown with the Scarlets.
The two regions – who were encouraged by the WRU to merge earlier this year – will instead go head-to-head at the Liberty Stadium on May 17 or 18 for the right to play in Europe’s top tier next season.
The Ospreys earned their place by finishing fourth in Conference A of the Guinness Pro 14 after a 26-23 victory over the Cardiff Blues in their Judgement Day meeting at the Principality Stadium.
“Quality and mentality won us that game, particularly in the second half when we played 20 minutes of it with 14 men,” said Clarke, the whistle-blower on those merger plans back in March.
“That tells you a lot about the group as a whole. It was a massive shift from the boys on the field and I thought our tight five were magnificent.”
Blues coach John Mulvihill refused to blame Gareth Anscombe for the defeat – even though the Wales No.10 missed a vital penalty kick against the team he is joining next season.
Sam Davies’ last-minute penalty proved decisive but not before Anscombe missed a straightforward kick shortly before Davies’s vital score.
Anscombe’s 18-point haul was not enough for the Blues but Mulvihill declined to throw his kicker under the bus and said: “He is disappointed that he missed one.
“But Sam Davies missed a couple of kicks as well, so it didn’t come down to that at all.
“Gareth was more concerned about Tomos Williams running 20 metres to score a try with no one within 15 metres of him and why it was pulled back.”
Mulvihill conceded that a team which has lost more games than they have won this season, did not really deserve to make it through and urged his players to become more ruthless.
“My message to our boys is that we have to be more clinical throughout the season,” said the head coach.
“We’ve lost a few games by very little points but what I like about this group is that we’ll always put ourselves into the contest, and that’s all our fans can ask, but we need to be able to finish teams off.
“We’ve had some highs and lows throughout the campaign. The highs have been massive, but we’ve had a fair few lows.
“I’m disappointed with the way we finished off as our intention has always been to improve from what we achieved last season.
“Disappointingly, we set ourselves a target of finishing as the best Welsh region but Ospreys have had a really strong finish to the season and have come up trumps there.
“We can compete with anyone, and have shown that in parts against big teams like Saracens, Glasgow Warriors and beating Lyon twice, who have a massive budget.
“It’s not always about having that, it’s about what you turn up and do on the day.
“Against the bigger teams we’ve been good this year, but it can take a toll on you, and probably took a toll on the depth of our squad at times.”
