Martyn Williams receives a consoling pat from Leicester coach Richard Cockerill

Coach Dai Young says he wishes Martyn Williams was not the man to miss the decisive kick in the Blues' Heineken Cup semi-final shoot-out defeat.

"He has given so much to that jersey, and he is in tears in there now, I wish it wasn't Martyn," said Young.

"Martyn is obviously really low, and Tom James [who missed a shoot-out kick that would have won the game], but we are not going to blame them.

"I am pretty low. It was a horrible way to go out, but somebody had to win."

The Blues were 26-12 down at the Millennium Stadium after 74 minutes in their bid to become the first Welsh region to make the Heineken Cup final.

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Tries from Jamie Roberts and James and two nerveless conversions from Ben Blair completed a remarkable comeback, before a scoreless extra time led to the competition's first shoot-out.

While he stressed that he did not want to detract from Leicester's achievements, Young - whose team have not lost a game in this season's competition - said that he did not feel that the kicking lottery was the best way to decide a rugby match.

"It's not a great way to win and it's a worse way to lose," said Young.

To have sudden death with both sides playing would seem a fairer way of doing things Dai Young

"We knew the rules going in, although we all hoped it wouldn't come down to that.

"To have sudden death with both sides playing would seem a fairer way of doing things, but we would say that.

"I think it's the first time a game has been decided like that - and unfortunately we were on the wrong end of it.

"I am not going to apportion blame. I admire the guys who stepped-up and took the kicks, but unfortunately, someone was always going to miss, either for us or Leicester.

"You win together and you lose together and there is no finger-pointing, but I really feel for someone like Martyn who has put in so much work to take this region forward."

Young, whose side had won their 12 previous cup games this season, was proud of the character shown by the Blues.

Tom James' late try completes a remarkable comeback to 26-26

"To be honest, Leicester were probably the best team for most of the game, and they did a real job at the tackle area," he said.

"We only showed glimpses of how we could play, but we showed a lot of character to come back into it.

"We knew if we could get any quick ball away from the tackle area we could cause them problems because they committed so many men there.

"But it took us 65 or 70 minutes to achieve that. Once we did, we showed what we could do and momentum was with us going into extra time.

"Nobody gave us a chance at the start of the season and hopefully we can maintain this now season after season.

"We are very disappointed at the moment, but very proud of the players.

"We didn't play to our potential but we showed how much it means to us the way we came back into it."

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