WALES football captain Gary Speed has admitted that their rugby counterparts are an "inspiration" to his side ahead of their crunch Euro 2004 play-off matches against Russia.

Steve Hansen's rugby side put in a spirited attacking performance against World Cup favourites England in the World Cup quarter-final on Sunday.

They took a 10-3 lead into the break but despite outscoring England by three tries to one they eventually lost 28-17.

And Newcastle midfielder Speed has said the performance by the rugby side has acted as an inspiration and that his troops can learn a lot from the attitude shown by the Wales squad on Sunday.

"I'm a huge rugby fan and was glued to my television on Sunday morning," admitted Speed. "It was a great performance by the rugby lads.

"The way they played is really an inspiration to us and if we latch on to that spirit on Saturday then it will be a huge advantage."

Like the Welsh rugby team, the football side are huge underdogs going into Saturday's first leg quarter-final in Moscow's Lokomotiv stadium.

Welsh bookmakers Jack Brown rate Wales 4-1 outsiders to get a result in Russia while they are also 6/5 to go through to the finals in Portugal next summer.

But Speed again feels that if they can use the attitude shown by their rugby counterparts then they can return from Moscow with at least a point.

"The rugby team have shown what you can do when the odds are firmly stacked against you," he said.

"And if it wasn't for Jonny Wilkinson then we would have beaten England, so we are all proud of the rugby boys.

"Now we have to replicate their performance in our match against Russia.

"Perhaps Russia will be taking us lightly but they are two one-off games.

"Their home form is awesome but their away form is not so good and if we can get something in Moscow then we are confident of coming back to Cardiff and progressing through to Portugal."

Speed's Newcastle team-mate, Irish goalkeeper Shay Given, who played against Russia twice has been giving his club colleague some helpful tips.

"I've spoke to Shay in depth about the threat they pose," said Speed.

"He said at Moscow they were awesome and deserved their victory but they (Ireland) should have beaten then at Lansdowne Road.

"He identified a couple of players who we need to watch and we'll be having a few video analysis sessions this week to identify their danger men further."