Latest - West Ham United made it two wins out of two in the Europa League after goals by Declan Rice and Said Benrahma secured a 2-0 home victory over Rapid Vienna.
Photo: AFP
The result put the Hammers top of group H on six points, three clear of Dinamo Zagreb, who thrashed Genk 3-0 in Belgium.
Meanwhile, Leicester City and Italian league leaders Napoli are bringing up the bottom of group C after round two defeats.
Leicester lost 1-0 at Legia Warsaw, while Napoli crashed to a shock 3-2 home defeat to Spartak Moscow.
In the third tier Europa Conference League, Harry Kane scored a second-half hat-trick to lead Tottenham to a 5-1 win over Slovenian side Mura in London.
- Reuters
Tall Ferns miss out on Asia Cup semifinals
The Tall Ferns have fallen one step short of their objective at the Asia Cup basketball tournament in Jordan.
Photo: FIBA 2021
They have been beaten 72-61 by Australia in the qualification semifinal in Amman to miss out on a place at the World Cup qualifying tournament.
Charlisse Leger-Walker led the Tall Ferns with 17 points, while sister Krystal Leger-Walker scored 12 points.
Australian guard Sami Whitcomb, who plays for the New York Liberty in the WNBA, led all scorers with 29 points.
The Tall Ferns will now square off with Chinese-Taipei for fifth place on Sunday morning, which coincidentally is the same opponent they played for the same position at the last Asia Cup in 2019.
Bates forced to pull out of WBBL
Suzie Bates is the latest White Ferns player to withdraw from Australia's Twenty20 cricket competition.
Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Bates has pulled out of the Adelaide Strikers side for the Women's Big Bash League due to difficulties surrounding international travel.
"I had to make the tough decision to withdraw from the WBBL because of the current travel restrictions between Australia and New Zealand and the difficulty for New Zealanders overseas to travel back to New Zealand freely because of the limited availability and uncertainty around guaranteeing quarantine spots," Bates said.
"At the time I had to make the decision I had a spot booked by New Zealand Cricket to get me back into NZ and if I gave this up to fly straight to Australia there was high chance of being stranded in Australia post the Big Bash. This was not a risk I was willing to take with what the White Ferns have coming up this summer, including a home world cup."
Bates' decision will bring into question the availability of several other White Ferns, including reigning two-time player of the tournament Sophie Devine.
White Ferns leg-spinner Amelia Kerr has already withdrawn from the Brisbane Heat squad to focus on her mental health.
Pumas name replacements for final Rugby Championship test
Argentina named Enrique Pieretto as a replacement for Santiago Medrano and Rodrigo Bruni for Pablo Matera in a reshuffled side for Saturday's Rugby Championship test against Australia after six players were ruled out for breaching COVID-19 rules.
Pumas captain Julian Montoya. Photo: Photosport
Two staff members were also kicked out of the tournament earlier on Thursday for breaking rules by taking an unauthorised day trip to the New South Wales resort of Byron Bay, competition organisers said.
As a result, Medrano along with back row enforcer Matera plus team mates Sebastian Cancelliere, Joaquin Diaz Bonilla, Felipe Ezcurra and Santiago Socino were left out of the squad.
Australia thumped Argentina 27-8 in Townsville last weekend for their third straight test win. Argentina have lost all five of their matches so far.
A victory for the Wallabies will help them finish second behind New Zealand, who sealed the title with a victory over world champions South Africa in Townsville last weekend.
- Reuters
Kiwis off the pace in Scotland
Josh Geary is the best placed of the three New Zealand golfers after the opening round of the European Tour's Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland.
Josh Geary Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Geary has opened with a two-under par 70 to be tied for 55th place.
He is six shots behind the four leaders, Belgium's Nicolas Colsaearts, Spaniard Adri Arnaus, Englishman Tyrrell Hatton and China's Haotong Li.
New Zealand number one Ryan Fox is 11 shots off the pace in a tie for 149th after carding a three-over 75 in the opening round, while Denzel Ieremia is a further shot back at four-over par.
Ieremia is making his first start of the European Tour season.
Crowd reduced for NRL grand final
The National Rugby League final between Penrith Panthers and South Sydney Rabbitohs on Sunday will be played in front of a reduced crowd of 39,000 in Brisbane because of new Covid-19 restrictions.
The Melbourne Storm lift the 2020 NRL Premiership trophy Photo: NRL Photos
The move follows Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk's announcement of stage-two coronavirus restrictions across areas of Queensland, including Brisbane and Gold Coast as well as Townsville.
Around 13,000 supporters who purchased tickets for the sold-out encounter will now receive automatic refunds, NRL CEO Andrew Abdo said in a statement.
"I want to acknowledge fans who will miss out on attending the grand final," Abdo said.
"I know you had been counting down the days to a once-in-a-lifetime experience and this will be difficult news to take, but this decision is out of our hands."
- Reuters
Tour Down Under off for another year
The Tour Down Under in Australia, which was scheduled to take place in January, has been cancelled for a second straight year because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Riders accept drinks from the crowd during the 2019 Tour Down Under. Photo: Zac Williams/SWpix
Traditionally the first World Tour race of the season, the event was set to include the men's UCI WorldTour and women's UCI ProTour races but the country's strict quarantine measures proved to be a major hurdle in bringing teams to Australia.
"Despite everyone's best efforts, it is with regret that we advise that the Santos Tour Down Under... will not go ahead in 2022," the organisers said in a statement.
"We have fully explored all avenues, but unfortunately in the end it was the border closures and quarantine requirements for more than 400 people that make up the international teams that proved to still be too difficult to overcome."
The race was last held in 2020. Organisers said they will be holding in its place a domestic event from Jan. 21-29 called the Santos Festival of Cycling on the streets of Adelaide and regional South Australia.
- Reuters
