Today's sports news: What you need to know

Latest - The Crusaders have beaten Moana Pasifika but the new side have turned in a respectable showing in their debut match in Super Rugby.

The 10-time champions were 33-12 winners in Dunedin on Friday night.

However, after having their first two matches postponed after a Covid outbreak within the squad, Moana Pasifika made the Crusaders work for their third win in as many weeks.

The Pasifka side stunned the Crusaders to score the opening try of the match in the 14th-minute.

While the Crusaders hit back twice before halftime to take a 14-5 lead to the break, they were made to work just as hard in the second half.

The Red and Blacks stretched their lead with a third try soon after the resumption, but Moana Pasifika refused to go away and added another five-pointer to close the gap to nine with 10 minutes to play.

Two Crusaders tries in the closing stages inflated the final margin.

Hurricanes Super Rugby Aupiki players contract Covid-19

The start of the Hurricanes inaugural Super Rugby Aupiki season has been slightly delayed, after members of the Hurricanes Poua team contracted Covid-19.

The competition was scheduled to begin on Saturday, with a pre-season game of three halves featuring Hurricanes Poua, Chiefs Manawa and Matatu at Taupo's Owen Delany Park.

"We're currently managing and mitigating exposure to Covid-19 for a few members of our team. The rest of the team will relocate to their Taupo bubble today as planned," Hurricanes chief executive officer Avan Lee said.

"It's unfortunate that our team will miss our preseason fixture, but our hope is that by delaying game time for a few extra days, we'll see players able to return into the environment, after recovering from Covid-19, and Sky Super Rugby Aupiki will play out in our bubble."

Hurricanes Poua will now turn their attention to Round 1 of Super Rugby Aupiki against the Blues, which will take place on Thursday, 10 March in Hamilton.

Chiefs Manawa and Matatu will still take to the field in a pre-season fixture as part of their build-up at Owen Delany Park, on Saturday at 2.15pm.

Last month, New Zealand Rugby announced that the four Super Rugby Aupiki teams would move into a Taupo bubble, similar to the set-up used by Super Rugby Pacific teams in Queenstown, to mitigate any risk of the virus disrupting the schedule.

Teams are staying across four hotels and will utilise the same Covid-19 protocols currently implemented for Super Rugby Pacific. Players will remain in their team bubbles at all times and be subject to regular rapid antigen tests.

The revised Super Rugby Aupiki draw will be announced in the coming days.

Ko on the leaderboard in Singapore

New Zealand golfer Lydia Ko is tied for fifth, two shots off the leader after the opening round of the Women's World Championship tournament in Singapore.

Ko fired a three under par 69 to be tied with 14 other players in fifth.

Thailand's Patty Tavatanakit has a one shot lead after firing a flawless five under par 67.

The 2021 ANA Inspiration sank five birdies to be one stroke ahead of a trio that included two-time winner Park In-bee, fellow South Korean Kim A-lim and American Danielle Kang.

Top-ranked Ko Jin-young is in the group with Lydia Ko.

This is the eighth successive year Lydia Ko has played the $2.5 million dollar tournament and while she has never won it, the world number three has never finished worse than 15th.

Russian footbal to appeal ban

The Russian Football Union says it will go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to appeal against its ban from international competitions after the country's invasion of Ukraine.

Earlier this week, Russian football clubs and national teams were suspended from all competitions "until further notice" by Fifa and Uefa.

The union said it would file one lawsuit against football's world and European governing bodies, demanding Russia's men's and women's national teams be allowed to compete.

Russia wants its national teams reinstated to play their men's World Cup play-off matches this month and the women's team once again included in this year's Euro 2022 competition in England.

The union also said it could ask for the suspension of competitions they were originally scheduled to compete in if unsuccessful.

Russian club Spartak Moscow were also kicked out of the Europa League and their last-16 opponents RB Leipzig will advance to the quarter-finals.

The 2022 Champions League final, originally due to be played in St Petersburg on 28 May, has also been moved to Paris.

-BBC

No more Russian F1 grands prix

Formula 1 has terminated its contract with the Russian Grand Prix.

The sport's commercial arm, which controls the calendar, has decided racing in the country is impossible following the invasion of Ukraine.

The race in Sochi scheduled for September this year has already been cancelled. There will now no longer be a race in St Petersburg, where it was due to move in 2023.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was key in establishing the event in 2014.

Putin, who remains closely associated with the race, has a palace in Sochi, and St Petersburg is his home town.

The decision means F1 will not race in Russia for the foreseeable future - effectively, at least for as long as Putin remains in power.

-BBC

Another claim against Cricket Tasmania

The former Cricket Tasmania receptionist who was involved in a sexting exchange with ex-captain Tim Paine is seeking $1 million from the cricket body in an unrelated matter.

Renee Ferguson, in documents filed with the Federal Court, claimed she was subjected to unwelcome sexual harassment while she was working for Cricket Tasmania and, as a result, has been unable to maintain continuous full-time employment.

Ms Ferguson was employed by Cricket Tasmania between 2015 and late 2017.

She has already lodged a notice to the court claiming she made four complaints to five different senior staff members, against three separate men, alleging sexual harassment in the workplace dating back to 2015.

The claims are not related to Tim Paine.

-ABC

Abramovic makes right decision

Roman Abramovich has made the right decision to sell Chelsea following Russia's invasion of Ukraine as the 55-year-old's ownership had become "unsustainable", the English Premier League's chief executive Richard Masters said.

Amid growing calls for Abramovich to be hit by sanctions after Russia's invasion of its neighbour, the metals magnate said in a statement yesterday that a sale was in the best interests of the reigning European and world football champions.

Masters welcomed Abramovich's search for a new owner for the London club but cautioned that sales normally take several weeks.

"I think the situation has escalated incredibly quickly over the last seven days and he's come to the right conclusion," Masters told the Financial Times Football Business Summit. "It's unsustainable in the current environment.

"I think the quickest one (sale of a Premier League club) we've ever done is 10 days. That's not to say it can't be beaten, but normally they take a number of weeks. It depends on the complexity of the information available."

Meanwhile British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, who owns the INEOS company, is not interested in buying the team from Abramovich.

-Reuters

Verstappen signs new deal

Formula One world champion Max Verstappen will stay at Red Bull until at least the end of 2028 after signing a five-year contract extension that will make him one of the sport's top earners alongside Mercedes rival Lewis Hamilton.

Red Bull did not disclose the financial terms of the new deal. The Dutchman's existing contract was set to expire at the end of 2023.

Media reports have valued the new deal at 65-80 million dollars a year.

"I really enjoy being part of the Oracle Red Bull Racing Team, so choosing to stay to the 2028 season was an easy decision," said Verstappen, who will line up alongside Mexican Sergio Perez this season for the second year in a row.

Verstappen, who made his Formula One debut with Red Bull-owned Toro Rosso as a 17-year-old back in 2015, clinched his first Formula One crown after beating Hamilton in controversial circumstances in December's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The 20-time race winner, who took his first victory on his Red Bull debut in 2016, will now be in a similar league pay-wise to Hamilton whose current Mercedes contract, set to expire at the end of next season, is reportedly worth 40 million pounds a year.

-Reuters

Djokovic may get to play Roland Garros

Novak Djokovic's chances of playing in May's French Open have improved after the country's government eased vaccine passport rules.

Prime Minister Jean Castex announced vaccine passports would no longer be needed to access venues from March 14.

In February, Djokovic defended his right to choose whether to get the coronavirus vaccine after being deported from Australia in January.

Vaccination is still a requirement to play in the Untied States.

For that reason Djokovic, from whom Daniil Medvedev took the men's world number one ranking on Monday, is expected to miss March's Masters Series events in Indian Wells and Miami.

The 34-year-old Serb lost in the quarter-finals as he played his first tournament of the year in Dubai at the end of February.

Djokovic would be the defending champion if he plays at the French Open, which begins on 22 May.

-BBC