Today's sports news: What you need to know

Latest- England Roses netballer Geva Mentor is stuck in New Zealand following the Roses' series win over the Silver Ferns.

Mentor was to fly from New Zealand to Australia with her Roses team mates for a series against the Australian Diamonds. The series in Australia has since been cancelled due to Covid-19 restrictions - just weeks before it was set to be played.

The rest of the Roses squad was headed home via Singapore but Mentor needed to get to Australia, where she lives, to link back up with the Collingwood Magpies side that she captains in the Super Netball League.

On social media Mentor wrote that a cap on international visitors into Australia and limited flights meant the next available flight out of New Zealand was 1 November.

Tall Ferns beaten in opening Asia Cup game

The Tall Ferns have been beaten in their opening game at basketball's Asia Cup.

The New Zealand women have suffered a 85-69 defeat to Korea to start the tournament being played in Amman, Jordan.

Foul trouble, a lacklustre shooting display and an impressive showing from Korean forward Isaem Choi all contributed to the Tall Ferns downfall.

Choi posted a game-high 29 points, including several three-pointers which kept New Zealand at bay.

Penina Davidson led the Tall Ferns scorers with 21 points, and also added 11 rebounds.

New Zealand, who faced Japan later on Tuesday, needed to finish in the top four to qualify for next year's World Cup qualifying tournament.

Coll still on a roll

The strong form of New Zealand squash player Paul Coll continues.

The world No 3 has beaten second-ranked Egyptian Mohamed El Shorbagy to book his spot the final of the PSA World Tour gold level tournament in San Francisco.

Coll won the semifinal in three games, coming from behind for a 9-11 11-7 11-8 victory.

The 29-year-old from Greymouth was set to face world No 1 Ali Farag, also of Egypt, in the final.

Coll beat Farag to claim the British Open title last month, before Farag bounced back for a four game win when the two players met at the Egyptian Open a couple of weeks ago.

Pumas get apology for photo snub

Rugby Championship organisers SANZAAR and Rugby Australia have apologised to Argentina after the Pumas were angered by being left out of a captains photo shoot which included the three other southern hemisphere nations' skippers.

Argentina coach Mario Ledesma said his players and staff felt "disrespected" after seeing photos and video of the Australian, New Zealand and South African captains published in media after Friday's photo shoot in Townsville, Australia.

"SANZAAR and Rugby Australia management would like to apologise to Argentina Rugby for the error that led to a photograph being published in the media that misrepresented The Rugby Championship in that it omitted Argentina," the governing bodies said in a statement on Monday.

"Unfortunately, a late travel change then meant that the Argentina captain could not make the designated time for the photo session."

SANZAAR blamed the release of the photo without Argentina captain Julian Montoya on a communications breakdown and said it took full responsibility for the error.

Unlike the other three nations, the Pumas have had to play all of their Rugby Championship matches away, going from one COVID-19 bubble to the next.

Ledesma complained this month that his squad had not been allowed sufficient time to prepare for the tournament and that "no-one seems to care" about the welfare of his players.

- Reuters

More history for female ref

Sara Cox said her historic debut as a Premiership referee could not have gone any better after earning rave reviews for her handling of Harlequins' win against Worcester.

The 31-year-old became the first female referee to officiate in an English top-flight game at the weekend and said her breakthrough would encourage more to follow in her footsteps.

"Amazing, I couldn't have honestly asked for better, I think there was a lot of engagement or interaction on social media and things and I didn't really process it until I actually ran out of the tunnel and I followed the players out," Cox said.

"When I got in the middle and there are 12,500 people all cheering ... you stop being apart of that moment, you start absorbing what's going on around you."

Cox, who has previously refereed a Premiership Cup match in 2018, two years after becoming the world's first professional female rugby union referee, handed out one yellow card in the match at Twickenham Stoop won 35-29 by Harlequins.

She praised both sets of players, some of whom initially addressed her as "sir".

"They were so respectful," Cox said. "Each and every single one of them including the coaching staff congratulated me afterwards, shook my hand and said well done and it's great to see you here."

Cox, whose Premiership refereeing debut was postponed last season because of the COVID-19 shutdown, said it was just about "doing the job" regardless of gender.

- Reuters

Moeen moving away from test cricket

England all-rounder Moeen Ali has announced his retirement from test cricket.

Moeen, who made his test debut in 2014, scored 2,914 runs in 64 tests at an average of 28.29 and picked up 195 wickets with his off-spin.

Moeen said in a statement that he was satisfied with his test career and hoped it would inspire other British Muslims to play for England.

"I've enjoyed test cricket but that intensity can be too much sometimes and I feel like I've done enough of it and I'm happy and content with how I've done."

"It always takes somebody to inspire you ... I know he wasn't English but someone like (former South Africa batter) Hashim Amla, when I first saw him, I thought if he can do it I can do it, it does take that little spark."

Having played little test cricket since the 2019 Ashes, Moeen was recalled for the home summer series against India and played in three matches.

In an interview with the Guardian and ESPNCricinfo, the 34-year-old said he was struggling to focus on test cricket and now intends to specialise in white-ball cricket.

- Reuters