27 May 2020

Today's sports news: What you need to know

9:56 am on 27 May 2020

Latest - Incoming Wallabies coach Dave Rennie will end his contract with Scottish club Glasgow Warriors on Monday, a month earlier than planned.

Rugby coach Dave Rennie.

Dave Rennie Photo: PHOTOSPORT

Glasgow has announced that Scotland forwards coach Danny Wilson will take over from Rennie on June 1st.

Warriors Managing Director Nathan Bombrys said "We've agreed that this is the right time for Danny Wilson to formally begin his role as head."

"With sport in Australia planning to return soon, making the change now will also allow Dave to begin his new role as head coach of the Australian national team.

Rennie was appointed Wallabies coach late last year but was committed to the warriors until the end of the northern season.

Former Chiefs coach Rennie led Glasgow to the final four of the Pro14 in his two full seasons in charge.

Rennie is expected to move to Australia in the next couple of weeks.

-Glasgow Warriors

Plenty of changes for Warriors

Warriors coach Stephen Kearney has made numerous personnel and positional changes for the resumption of the club's NRL campaign against St George Illawarra in Gosford on Saturday.

Gerard Beale reacts after his try is disallowed due to a forward pass that wasn't forward.

Gerard Beale Photo: PhotoSport

Seasoned Kiwi international Gerard Beale returns in the centres in his comeback from his patella injury while fellow outside backs Patrick Herbert and Peta Hiku also come back into the side after missing the second-round clash against Canberra in March on compassionate grounds.

Beale, Hiku and Herbert replace Adam Pompey, the injured Adam Keighran and centre David Fusitu'a, who has been in quarantine after arriving late in Australia.

There's a fourth backline change for this third-round match with Kiwi play maker Kodi Nikorima named to pair Blake Green in the halves.

With Leeson Ah Mau sidelined after pectoral surgery, rookie Jamayne Taunoa-Brown starts at prop alongside Lachlan Burr. In another change in the starting pack, 50-game second rower Isaiah Papali'i is named to partner Tohu Harris with rookie Eliesa Katoa listed on the bench.

Sharks star tests positive for steroids

Cronulla centre Bronson Xerri is facing a possible multi-year suspension after testing positive to several banned performance-enhancing substances, including steroids, late last year.

Xerri has been provisionally suspended under the NRL's Anti-Doping Policy, just hours before he was to be named for a return from injury for the Sharks against Wests Tigers in round 3.

He will now have the opportunity to have his B-sample analysed by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority, and is unable to play any form of rugby league while provisionally suspended.

Several of the substances are anabolic steroids, or compounds that are tested to detect the use of steroids.

All are prohibited under both the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the NRL's Anti-Doping Policy, with the testing conducted last year by ASADA.

At the time of his positive test the 19-year-old was recovering from off-season shoulder surgery following an impressive rookie season for the Sharks.

-NRL

Audi and Abt go their separate ways

Daniel Abt has parted company with the Audi Formula E team after letting a professional gamer impersonate him in an official esports race.

German Audi E driver Daniel Abt.

Daniel Abt Photo: PHOTOSPORT

The manufacturer had earlier suspended the German driver after the weekend cheating controversy.

"Today I was informed in a conversation with Audi that our ways will split from now on, we won't be racing together in Formula E any more and the cooperation has ended," he said in a 15-minute video on YouTube.

The 27-year-old denied seeking any sporting gain in Saturday's fifth round of the all-electric series' virtual 'Race at Home Challenge' and said he had simply wanted "to create a funny story for the fans".

He said what happened had been openly discussed beforehand on his Twitch live stream in front of 1,000 followers and no money had changed hands.

"Looking back, we did not think enough about the seriousness and the consequences of the situation. We made a huge mistake there," said Abt, who has paid 10,000 euros ($10,956) to charity.

"It was never my intention to let another driver drive for me to get a result and keep quiet about it later on just to make me look better."

Audi said in an earlier statement that "integrity, transparency and consistent compliance with applicable rules" were top priorities.

-Reuters

Rory doubts Ryder Cup will go ahead

World golf number one Rory McIlroy believes the Ryder Cup is unlikely to take place this year and postponing the biennial match play event to 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic would be the right call to make.

Team Europe celebrate winning the 2018 Ryder Cup

Europe Ryder Cup team Photo: PHOTOSPORT

The golf calendar has been decimated by the coronavirus outbreak, with three of the sport's four majors rescheduled and the British Open cancelled.

The Ryder Cup is due to take place from Sept. 25-27 at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin but fans will almost certainly be asked not to attend.

"My personal hunch is that I don't see how it is going to happen, so I do not think that it will happen," McIlroy, 31, told BBC.

"I think the majority of players would like to see it pushed back until 2021 so that they can play in front of crowds and have the atmosphere that makes the Ryder Cup so special.

-Reuters

Sri Lankan bowler arrested

Sri Lanka fast bowler Shehan Madushanka has been suspended from all forms of cricket with immediate effect after he was arrested for alleged possession of illegal drugs.

The 25-year-old took a hat-trick in his first one-day international against Bangladesh in January, 2018, in Dhaka and played two more Twenty20 internationals on that tour before being sidelined with injuries.

He was caught with 2.7 grams of heroin by police on Saturday and then remanded in custody till June 2, Sri Lanka police said.

-Reuters

Man U boss expects stars to play this season

Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer says Paul Pogba and Marcus Rashford have recovered from their injuries and will be available for the restart of the English Premier League season.

Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer hugs Paul Pogba.

OGS and Paul Pogba Photo: PHOTOSPORT

Pogba, who underwent foot surgery in January, and Rashford, who suffered a back injury during an FA Cup third-round clash against Wolverhampton Wanderers, were both expected to miss the remainder of the campaign.

Solskjaer is also hoping to keep hold of striker Odion Ighalo until the end of the season.

Ighalo's loan move from Shanghai Shenhua is set to end on May 31 and the Chinese Super League club are keen on bringing the striker back ahead of the resumption of their domestic season.

Premier League players have returned to non-contact training in small groups with their clubs and 'Stage Two' of the government's guidance will allow close quarters coaching and tackling in team sports.

-Reuters

More stars to play Djokovic event

Croatians Marin Cilic and Borna Coric will join world number one Novak Djokovic's tennis tournament to be played across the Balkans in June and July.

Marin Cilic

Marin Cilic Photo: Photosport

Their inclusion will complete a formidable field also featuring Alexander Zverev, Dominic Thiem and Grigor Dimitrov, with the first of four legs set to take place in Belgrade on June 13 and 14.

The series will then move to Croatia's coastal resort Zadar, where 2014 U.S. Open winner Cilic and 23-year old Coric will take centre stage in front of their home fans.

The final two legs of the tour are provisionally to be held in Montenegro and Bosnia, but Djokovic revealed at a news conference in Serbia's capital they might have to be moved if the infrastructure is not completed in time.

Djokovic returned to his hometown Belgrade on Sunday after being stranded in the Spanish resort of Marbella for two months, where he was visiting his younger brother Marko when the pandemic broke out.

All four legs of the tour will feature eight players competing in two pools of four on a round-robin basis, with the winners of each pool advancing to the final.

-Reuters

City legend passes away

Manchester City's youngest-ever player Glyn Pardoe, who made his first team debut at 15 years and 314 days in 1962, has died at the age of 73.

Pardoe, who started as a forward and ended as a defender, helped City win the league title in 1968, the FA Cup in 1969 and also scored the winning goal in the 1970 League Cup final against West Bromwich Albion.

He was also in City's triumphant European Cup Winners' Cup team of 1970.

Pardoe spent his entire career at City, making his debut against Birmingham City as a centre forward but finding a more permanent role as a right-footed left-back from 1966.

In 1970 he broke his leg in a tackle with Manchester United's George Best, an injury that took him nearly two years to recover from. He retired in 1976 after 380 appearances and 22 goals for the club.

-Reuters