Wooden spoon, silver spoon

Ten games unbeaten, Hughes' footballers fly the flag for Wales after rugby's blank Six Nations

The balance of power in Welsh sport made another perceptible shift towards the round ball from the oval one yesterday.

Mark Hughes, once a hero on the pitch for the football team, is now working wonders from the touchline as manager. He has created a team who are playing like royalty as they demonstrated by thrashing Azerbaijan 4-0 at the Millennium Stadium to take another steps towards qualifying for the 2004 European Championship finals.

But while the footballers are blessed by the silver spoon and are unbeaten in 10 games, the rugby boys have to endure the burden of carrying the wooden spoon away from the Six Nations' Championship after another embarrassing defeat, this one 33-5 at the Stade de France, their sixth successive setback in their worst-ever run. So much for signs of a new beginning in the heroic defeat by the Irish Grand Slam contenders last weekend.

It all started so well for the Welsh in both codes. Ryan Giggs and Craig Bellamy combined to cause panic in the Azerbaijan defence straight from the kick-off, with the ball rolling into the net via a defender for the first Welsh goal. In Paris, Wales launched an incisive counterattack in the fifth minute with Gareth Thomas going over for a try.

From then on, the scripts took different directions. The round ball ran the Welsh way virtually throughout the 90 minutes of the victory march, with goals from Gary Speed and John Hartson making it 3-0 at the interval and Giggs adding the fourth.

However, in Paris, once the French found their feet there was only going to be one outcome. Tries for Thomas Castaignède, Vincent Clerc and Frédéric Michalak, supported by the boot of Dimitri Yachvili, left the Welsh able to take consolation only in their ability to keep the score down.

They were consigned to bottom place in the championship by Scotland, who battled past Italy 33-25 at Murrayfield, which was just as well for their sporting pride north of the border. Scotland's footballers have not exactly been setting the world alight, but like their Welsh counterparts they look to be on course for the Euro 2004 finals after battling to a 2-1 victory over Iceland, their main contenders for the runner-up spot in their group behind Germany.

Unlike their rugby team, Ireland's footballers reflect the political divide and their fortunes were similarly disparate. While the Republic rediscovered their winning touch in their first competitive match under their new coach, Brian Kerr, Northern Ireland lost in Armenia. Tottenham's Gary Doherty gave the Republic a 2-1 win in Georgia with an 86th-minute goal, but the North were undone by an equally late strike in Yerevan.