After Hook and Blair had exchanged quick-fire penalties, Owens lost patience with the number of breakdown offences and sent Ospreys flanker Marty Holah to the sin-bin.

That 32nd-minute yellow card gave Cardiff some much-needed impetus and a Gareth Thomas bust forward saw his side up into the hosts’ 22.

However, captain Xavier Rush spilt the ball forward off the next phase and the increasingly influential Hook found an excellent touch just over the halfway line.

Danger averted, the Ospreys saw out the opening half with a 9-3 lead and wasted little time in adding to it after the break.

A scrum offence from the Blues was punished by Hook’s fourth penalty and after Cardiff had lost flanker Maama Molitika to the bin – he saw yellow for slowing up Ospreys ball in front of his posts – Hook kicked his side 15-3 clear.

The game’s only try followed while the Blues were down to 14 men. The Ospreys finally found some continuity as the fleet-footed Shane Williams squirmed his way up close to the try line and supporting hooker Bennett piled over from two metres out.

Hook converted and the Ospreys, the defending champions, comfortably saw out the result – only their third win of the current league run – although the Blues did go close late on to notching a try through Dafydd Hewitt and then Rhys Thomas.