Scottish Rugby's performance director David Nucifora is set for a shock role on the British and Irish Lions staff for the upcoming tour of his native Australia.

Nucifora worked closely with Lions coach Andy Farrell during his 10 years at Ireland, a spell which yielded four men's Six Nations titles.

He left Irish Rugby at the end of the 2023-2024 season before joining the Scottish Rugby Union (SRU) last August.

It's understood Nucifora will fulfil a similar performance role with the Lions and will be seconded from the SRU to join Farrell's team.

His knowledge of Australian rugby, as well as the home nations, is considered to be a major asset as the Lions look to win a Test series for the first time in 12 years.

After winning the Rugby World Cup with the Wallabies in 1991, Nucifora coached the ACT Brumbies to great success in the 2000s and was general manager of the Australian Rugby Union High Performance Unit from 2009.

Farrell has yet to officially confirm any of his coaching appointments, although strength and conditioning guru Aled Walters, who joined Ireland from England in the summer, is almost certainly set to be involved.

Sweeney also denied speculation that he was planning to ride out the furore in the hope of stepping down in the wake of a successful Women's Rugby World Cup later this year.

The tournament is being hosted in England, has already brought in record ticket sales, and the Red Roses are hot favourites to win the World Cup for the first time since 2014.

"I saw something a while back saying I have some specific bonus linked to a women's World Cup win - that is not the case, that is not true," Sweeney said.

"If I was in a mind to step down, I would have done it now and I wouldn't wait until after a women's World Cup.

"I still have some unfinished business here until the end of 2027. [England men's head coach] Steve Borthwick is a great coach and we have a great squad of men's players as well as women's.

"There is a buzz and a good atmosphere around the place and I would like to see that through."

Sweeney has said that, contrary to criticisms of his time in charge, he is proud of the RFU's finances in the wake of the Covid pandemic.

The chief executive said record losses in the past financial year were down to the four-year cycle around the men's Rugby World Cup, in which tournament years add extra expenses while wiping money-spinning autumn internationals off the fixture list, and a steep rise in utility and business costs.

He also defended his own pay, which was made up of 742,000 and a bonus of 358,000 last year.

Sweeney said that, while he had unsuccessfully explored the possibility of deferring his bonus payment, it was the result of a scheme intended to retain senior leaders through the pandemic and benchmark their performance against specific goals.

"When you are the recipient of something like an LTIP [long-term incentive plan], you don't request it, you don't design it, you don't set the criteria for its payment," he said.

"The payment was against very clear criteria of which 77% were hit, so part of me says that was put in place to deliver something to a level which we delivered.

"I don't feel we need to apologise for that scheme."

Sweeney and other RFU officials are embarking on a tour of grassroots clubs over the next few months to put forward their case before a special general meeting on his future.

Rob Sigley, the founder of the Community Clubs Union, believes it is already too late for Sweeney to win over many in the sport who feel that too much money has been focused on the elite game.

"We have openly called for his head and for him to resign," said Sigley of Sweeney.

"He sits there at the top and is part of these decision-making processes and he's accountable for it."

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The Minnesota Wild activated star Kirill Kaprizov and captain Jared Spurgeon from injured reserve before their game against Utah on Thursday, putting two integral players back in the lineup.

Kaprizov last played Dec. 23 against the Chicago Blackhawks. He missed 12 games with a lower-body injury that lingered longer than the Wild initially believed it would, taking a cautious midseason approach to the return of their leading scorer and first-line left wing.

He was among the NHL leaders in goals and points before he was hurt. He has 23 goals and 27 assists in 34 games.

Spurgeon missed nine games with a lower-body injury that he said Thursday included his ankle and knee. The 15th-year veteran defenseman was taken down Dec. 31 by a slew foot move that got Nashville Predators forward Zachary L'Heureux a three-game suspension.

Jack Grealish has said Manchester City are in a fight to regain their confidence after being left on the brink of a humiliating Champions League elimination following Wednesday's 4-2 defeat against Paris Saint-Germain.

Pep Guardiola's team threw away a two-goal lead after substitute Grealish had scored one and made another goal for Erling Haaland in the opening eight minutes of the second-half. The defeat means that City must win their final league stage game against Club Brugge next week to qualify for the Champions League knockout stages.

Wednesday's collapse in the Parc des Princes was City's 10th defeat in all competitions since Oct. 30 and the ninth time this season that they have failed to win after taking the lead in a game.

Grealish said the loss of form is down to confidence being drained by poor performances and results.

"It's maybe a confidence thing -- we've not had the best of seasons, and we know that," Grealish told reporters in Paris.

"This season, it's just been difficult, and it certainly was in Paris.

"It's down to ourselves to try and change it. It's difficult and it's never happened during my team here. Usually we are so good in these moments and down to us to change it.

"It's down to us to get that confidence and swagger back."

City now face two crucial home games over the next week with the fifth-placed champions playing fourth-place Chelsea in the Premier League on Saturday before the win-or-bust clash with Brugge on Wednesday.

"We have a massive game at the weekend against Chelsea in the league, and then a must-win game next week back at the Etihad [against Brugge]," Grealish said.

"We're going to need the Etihad rocking, like it is on Champions League nights. Next week is like a final for us. We have to win.

"We'll work hard and hopefully we can get the wins in the next two games."

LOS ANGELES -- While head coach Sean McVay did not have an update on quarterback Matthew Stafford's future with the Los Angeles Rams at his end-of-season news conference, he said he hoped there would be clarity "sooner than later" this offseason.

After the Rams' divisional round loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, Stafford said he would "take some time to think about" his NFL future. When asked whether he still has football left in him, he said, "Sure feels like it."

Last offseason, the Rams and Stafford worked through a similar scenario, eventually agreeing to an adjusted contract on the day the team reported to training camp.

"We don't want to have that go on again," McVay said. "I don't think that's good for anybody. I think sooner than later, being able to get that clarity. Understanding clear, open and honest communication.

"I think there's a lot of love coming from our part. I think there's a lot of appreciation coming from his part as well. And I think a lot sooner than later is an ideal scenario."

When asked whether he could definitively say that unless Stafford retires, he would be playing for the Rams next season, McVay said, "We'll talk about all those things at the appropriate time."

"I know he's playing really good football," McVay said. "Obviously, I love him, love working with him. What he's meant to our football team has been immeasurable in a positive way."

McVay said "the quarterback is always the first thing in mind as it relates to how you move forward with the team," and when the Rams sit down after the season, they will discuss the next steps with Stafford.

McVay also brought up the rib injury Stafford played through toward the end of the season. On Wednesday, Stafford's wife, Kelly, said on her podcast that Stafford cracked four ribs in Week 15 against the San Francisco 49ers.

McVay said after that game against the 49ers, the Rams' medical staff did imaging of Stafford's ribs, but that "nothing showed up on that imaging."

"It continued to kind of just irritate him, but it didn't affect his ability to practice, anything play-related," McVay said. "But he did have some irritation. And then before the Minnesota game when he did get an MRI scan there showed some stress reactions. That was what was communicated to me."

McVay said the injury "didn't limit [Stafford's] ability to practice." Stafford never appeared on the injury report following Week 15 and only missed practice time as a coach's decision in Week 18 after the Rams had clinched the NFC West.

"He's as tough as it gets," McVay said. "It's like anything else, as the season goes on, players accumulate things that they work through when you play as many games as they do."

Stafford completed 65.8% of his passes for 3,762 yards with 20 touchdowns and eight interceptions this season.

NEW YORK -- New York Yankees legend Mariano Rivera and his wife are accused in a lawsuit of failing to protect a young girl who was sexually abused by an older child during a summer camp trip sponsored by their church.

In a lawsuit filed this month, lawyers for the girl allege that the Hall of Fame pitcher and his wife, Clara Rivera, a pastor at the Refuge of Hope Church, flew from New York to Florida to investigate after the girl's mother expressed concerns about her daughter's safety during the 2018 trip.

But rather than take action, the couple "isolated and intimidated" the victim into remaining "silent about her negative experiences," including the abuse, the lawsuit says.

Joseph A. Ruta, an attorney for the Riveras, said in a statement that any allegations that they "knew about or failed to act on reports of child abuse are completely false." He said the couple only learned of the allegations in 2022 after receiving a letter from an attorney requesting a financial settlement.

"The Riveras are known throughout New York for their charitable work and especially for their commitment to serving underprivileged children," Ruta said. "It's unfortunate they are being targeted by false allegations."

The lawsuit doesn't name the accuser, but it says she was born in 2007, which would have made her 10 or 11 years old in 2018.

That summer, according to the complaint, Clara Rivera persuaded a congregant to allow her daughter to attend a camp at the Ignite Life Center, a church in Gainesville, Florida.

While staying in an unsupervised dorm room, the girl was repeatedly sexually abused by an older female camper, according to the suit. In a police report filed in 2022, the girl said there were 15 instances of inappropriate touching over a two-week period, both in her bunk and a shower.

Though the girl did not report the abuse, her mother grew worried about her safety after the two spoke on the phone call, the complaint states. The mother then outlined her concerns to Clara Rivera, who agreed to investigate, according to the suit.

During that trip, the couple "received information that should have given them concern," the lawsuit says, but they chose instead to remain silent to "avoid the potential scandal of child sexual abuse in its programs." The suit doesn't specifically state what the Riveras were told by the girl or her mother.

The girl later returned to New York and continued her active participation in the church. But later that summer, during a barbecue for congregants at the Riveras' home in Rye, New York, she was again abused by the same person, the complaint states.

"They failed to mitigate the risks, and upon learning that she had been a victim, took no steps to protect her or get criminal justice," the attorney who filed the lawsuit, Adam Horowitz, told The Associated Press by phone. "They continued to expose her again to the same risk at her home."

In 2021, the girl was again sexually assaulted, this time by a male youth leader at Refuge of Hope, according to the lawsuit. The abuse in that case was discovered by the girl's mother, who found months of electronic communications between the two, the lawsuit contends.

Afterward, the girl and her mother filed police reports in New York and Florida regarding the abuse in 2018 and 2021. Horowitz said he didn't believe that criminal charges were brought in any of the cases. The lawsuit was filed against the Refuge of Hope church, not against the Riveras themselves.

Prosecutors in New York and Florida didn't immediately respond to requests for comment about whether they looked into the allegations.

A lawyer for Ignite Life Center did not respond to an inquiry. The church recently settled lawsuits brought by three people -- also represented by Horowitz -- who said they were abused as teenagers by a volunteer at Ignite Life Center. Two others affiliated with the church have been charged with lewd and lascivious battery against minors.