The Blues secured their first cup final date in 12 years – against Gloucester at Twickenham on April 18 – by recording a 11-5 semi-final victory over Northampton Saints.
And Young insists the fans who made the 250-mile round trip to Coventry’s Ricoh Arena deserved some long-awaited success.Â
Blues head coach Dai Young said: “We had something like 3,000 travelling supporters here today. “They will go home smiling so it is great for the players, for chairman Peter Thomas and the board.”Â
Young has been under constant pressure after failing to deliver any silverware since becoming head coach of the capital region in 2003.Â
And despite defying his critics by building an ever-improving side, he admits it has been a long and drawn out process.Â
Young said: “It has not been as quick as people or we would have liked, but we have put real solid foundations in place.Â
“When I took the job I knew it was going to be a bumpy road. I had a look around me and I knew we weren’t going to achieve much in the short term.Â
“But you had to have the confidence and the belief to carry on and the region and the board have realised which path we had to take.”Â
Jason Spice’s first-half try set the Blues on their way to an 11th successive victory over English opposition.Â
But Young believes there is more to come from his well-drilled side. “We look each other in the eye after every game and know we have put in 100 per cent. We are a tough side to beat at the moment.”Â
He added: “We are not the finished article but we are at the business end now which is where we want to be. We have put the building blocks in place and it is in the last two years that I have felt we are somewhere near it.”
