While Mapu grew up half a world away from Northampton, he followed Saints with intense interest.

The Pisi brothers, Ken and George, who were part of Northampton's 2014 title-winning side are two former Samoa internationals he knows well.

"I was born and raised in Samoa, but when I moved to New Zealand for high school, I stayed with the Pisi brothers and their family," he said.

"We know each other really well, their parents gave me brilliant advice all through my junior rugby career, and Ken and George used to give me Northampton kit to wear when I was training which I loved."

Saints director of rugby Phil Dowson says the club believes Mapu can "thrive" in the Premiership.

"He is extremely physical, aggressive, and athletic, with a lot of raw talent and potential," Dowson said.

New York City FC's $780 million, 25,000-seat venue that it intends to open next to the New York Mets' Citi Field in 2027 will be named Etihad Park under a 20-year agreement announced Thursday with Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates.

The Major League Soccer team's controlling owner is City Football Group, the parent company of England's Manchester City. The Premier League team's venue was renamed Etihad Stadium in July 2011.

NYCFC president Brad Sims said revenue from the deal will go to the MLS team and not the parent company or English club, which is under investigation by the Premier League for alleged violations of financial fair play rules.

Etihad has been NYC's shirt sponsor since 2014 and Manchester City's since 2009-10, a season after the Abu Dhabi United Group took control.

"It's a 100% New York City FC deal," Sims said. "Etihad Airways has been essentially our premiere, our principal and founding partner since Day 1 at the club here. ... We wanted to ideally stay with someone who is a current partner of New York City FC and or someone in the City Football Group family but Etihad was easily kind of the No. 1 focus that we've had all along."

Etihad also has collaborated with NYCFC on community initiatives.

"They've been interested for quite some time about this stadium in New York and really buying into, I think, the path of travel of the sport in this country, in the New York market specifically," Sims said. "For them the New York market, the New York City market is a very strategic commercial market."

Since taking the field in 2015, NYCFC has played home games primarily at Yankee Stadium, home of the Major League Baseball team that is a minority investor in NYCFC.

But because of schedule conflicts, NYC has played some home matches at Citi Field, the home of the rival New York Red Bulls in Harrison, New Jersey, and Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Connecticut.

Saturday's Eastern Conference semifinal against the rival New York Red Bulls will be at Citi Field because Notre Dame is playing Army in a college football game at Yankee Stadium.

NYCFC announced the site in 2022. The New York City Council approved the soccer stadium in April as part of a Willets Point redevelopment that includes 2,500 housing units, a new public school, hotel and retail stores. Bulldozers and cranes are involved in pre-construction, lease negotiations with New York City are progressing and a groundbreaking is likely before the end of the year, according to Sims.

Mets owner Steve Cohen is among the bidders for a license to build a casino in an area adjacent to Citi Field.

"The more activity that can happen in development in Willets Point and make it a live-work-and-play neighborhood the better," Sims said.

Sims said when NYCFC is home first in a day, there has to be a six-hour buffer before a Mets game can start. When the Mets are home first, there has to be a seven-hour buffer before soccer can kick off.

Similar parameters exist with the U.S. Tennis Association for the U.S. Open.

Sims said the new stadium will benefit NYCFC if MLS switches to an August-to-May schedule, aligning with most European soccer leagues, from its current February-to-December calendar.

"There's a lot of pros to doing that. The cons mostly reside in cold-weather cities that have outdoor stadiums," Sims said. "I think for us with the new stadium we would likely be relatively insulated, at least in the early -- at least in the first five-, 10-plus years just with kind of excitement around the stadium."

2026 World Cup MLS season ticket holders will have priority access to hospitality tickets for the 2026 World Cup.

"All MLS season members, season ticket holders, corporate partners and such will have will have a kind of presale access, these opportunities ahead of the marketplace to purchase suites, club seats, hospitality-type products at all games in all markets throughout the 2026 World Cup," Sims said.

"That's something that I think is a great benefit to our season ticket members and to our sponsors and corporate partners. ... We're in the marketplace actively marketing 2025 City memberships and that's going to be another benefit of that."

Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic has sustained a right wrist strain and will miss at least one week, sources told ESPN's Shams Charania on Thursday.

Doncic received evaluations on the wrist Wednesday and will begin rehabilitating the injury, sources said.

He will be reevaluated after missing the next week of games against the Denver Nuggets, Miami Heat, Atlanta Hawks and New York Knicks, sources said.

Doncic had tried to downplay the injury after Tuesday's win over the New Orleans Pelicans, noting that he started feeling the issue in the first quarter but adding that he thought it was "nothing serious."

He was returning to the lineup against the Pelicans after missing his first game of the season Sunday due to a right knee bruise.

Doncic is averaging 28.2 points, 7.8 rebounds and 7.8 assists per game this season.

PITTSBURGH -- The Pittsburgh Pirates have hired Matt Hague as their hitting coach, bringing him back to the team that drafted him in 2008.

Hague replaces Andy Haines, who was fired after Pittsburgh finished in the bottom 10 in the majors in every significant statistical category last season, including runs (24th) and home runs (25th), while also striking out a club-record 1,504 times, second-most in the National League behind Colorado.

The 39-year-old Hague spent last season as an assistant hitting coach with the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Pirates selected Hague in the ninth round of the 2008 draft. The first baseman reached the majors in 2012 with Pittsburgh but played sparingly with the Pirates and Toronto. Hague hit .226 with no home runs and 7 RBI in 84 career major-league at-bats. He played briefly in Japan in 2016 and served as a minor leaguer in three different organizations in 2017 and 2018 before going into coaching.

Pittsburgh finished 76-86 for a second straight season due mostly to an offense that struggled to support a pitching staff that included National League Rookie of the Year Paul Skenes and fellow rookie Jared Jones. The Pirates figure to spend much of their offseason trying to upgrade a lineup anchored by veteran left fielder Bryan Reynolds.

Harlequins flanker Will Evans has signed a new contract with the Premiership club.

He follows vice-captain Cadan Murley, scrum-half Will Porter, winger Cassius Cleaves and full-back Tyrone Green in committing his future to the club.

Evans, 27, has made 97 appearances and scored 15 tries in the famous quarters since moving to Twickenham Stoop from Leicester Tigers in 2019.

He was part of the squad that won the Premiership title in 2020-21 and won three club player of the year awards last season.

"On a personal level, last year was the best of my career and I knew I wanted to keep stepping forward with this badge on my chest," he told the club's website, external.

"We have a load of youngsters coming through, who'll continue to push the club forward and hopefully we can create a lot more memories and ultimately lift more silverware."

Evans has featured in every Premiership fixture for Quins so far this season, scoring three tries.

The club has not specified the length of the new deal.

Harlequins return to league action against Bristol Bears on Friday, 29 November.

Ireland's Jamie Osborne says the side must be wary of opponents who "can create something out of nothing" when they take on Fiji at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday.

Ireland have never lost to Fiji but the tourists claimed the scalp of Wales in Cardiff two weeks ago.

"They're a very good side," said Osborne.

"They've a couple of gamebreakers in their team, players that can create something out of nothing.

"They can be hard to prepare for because you don't want to give them anything, any loose ball."

Osborne won his third and fourth caps against New Zealand and Argentina this autumn having debuted on the tour of South Africa last summer.

Andy Farrell called his contribution from the bench "immense" against the Pumas as Ireland held on for a 22-19 win but the 23-year-old knows the side as a whole are still searching for their best form.

"I think as a team we wanted to be a bit better and think we can perform better than we showed," he said of the defeat to the All Blacks and narrow victory over Argentina.

"Argentina was a step up from New Zealand in terms of how we attacked the game at the start, probably a bit inaccurate and ill-disciplined in the second half.

"It was definitely an improvement and we're hoping to improve again next week."

Izuchukwu, who can operate in the second and back rows, was named in Farrell's squad for the summer's two-Test tour of South Africa but did not make either matchday panel.

But having impressed for Ulster and on his second Emerging Ireland tour earlier this autumn, he will make his Test bow in a strong back row that includes 2022 world player of the year Josh van der Flier and captain Caelan Doris.

Izuchukwu's Ulster team-mate Stockdale has been rewarded for a strong start to the season which has yielded three tries in five United Rugby Championship appearances.

Stockdale, 28, last started for Ireland in the World Cup warm-up match against Samoa in August 2023.

McCarthy, who captained Ireland Under-20s to a Six Nations Grand Slam in 2023, has been promoted to the line-up in place of Leinster team-mate Kelleher, who started against the All Blacks and Argentina.

Prendergast, one of the stars of that under-20s side, has been rewarded for a steady debut off the bench against Argentina. His older brother Cian, who has three caps, has been named on the bench.

Aki also returns to the line-up after being dropped following the defeat by New Zealand, while Tom O'Toole is recalled to the replacements after missing the Argentina game with a head injury he sustained against the All Blacks.

O'Toole's Ulster team-mates Iain Henderson, Rob Herring and Stuart McCloskey are also on the bench, but there is still no place for prop Tadhg Furlong despite a positive fitness update earlier this week.

Crowley, James Lowe, Jamison Gibson-Park, Peter O'Mahony, Garry Ringrose and James Ryan are among those rested by Farrell.

Finally, Cian Healy must wait another week for a record-breaking 134rd cap - having drawn level with Brian O'Driscoll against Argentina - after the prop was left out of the 23.

Before the 2024-25 NHL season, we made bold predictions for all 32 teams, ranging from individual player achievement to where teams would end up in the standings.

With almost a quarter of the season in the books, some of these predictions have already come true ... while others are teetering on the brink of being absolutely egregious.

Here's a progress report on our bold predictions. We'll rate each prediction on a 1-10 scale, with "1" indicating that the prediction absolutely will not come true and "10" indicating that I absolutely nailed it. Enjoy!

Atlantic Division

Boston Bruins

This will be Jim Montgomery's last season in Boston

Montgomery didn't have a contract beyond this season, despite GM Don Sweeney's claim that the two sides were talking extension. Sweeney said on Wednesday that it was a matter of financial disagreement, but also added several times that a performance factored into the talks.

I thought it was fairly obvious that if the Bruins didn't meet expectations of management, Monty would meet the same fate as the other Jack Adams winners (Claude Julien, Bruce Cassidy) that were dismissed by the Cam Neely regime. What I didn't anticipate was the dismissal happening after just 20 games. Montgomery was fired on Tuesday and replaced by associate coach Joe Sacco after Boston's 8-9-3 start (.475 points percentage).

Boston was 31st in team offense (2.40 goals per game) and 28th in defense (3.45 goals against per game), the latter being a product of their suddenly porous goaltending. Montgomery wasn't the reason Jeremy Swayman had an .884 save percentage through 14 games or that Boston decided to break up the best goalie tandem in the NHL by trading Linus Ullmark to Ottawa. This disappointing season is a matter of construction over coaching ... but there's no denying that Montgomery's heralded defensive system was less effective ever since Patrice Bergeron called it a career.

Montgomery did what he could to light a fire under the Bruins, including when he benched David Pastrnak recently. Now it's Sweeney trying to light a fire under the Bruins by sending Montgomery packing.

Nailed this one. Wish they could have all been this easy ...

Bold prediction confidence rating: 10

Thomas Tuchel is set to add Chelsea goalkeeping coach Hilario to his backroom staff when starting work as England's new permanent manager on Jan. 1, sources have told ESPN.

ESPN reported on Oct. 18 that Tuchel was keen on targeting Hilario and sources have confirmed that the 49-year-old has resigned from his position at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea declined to comment when contacted by ESPN but Hilario has ended an 18-year association with the Blues to take up a position in Tuchel's staff.

Tuchel has already appointed Anthony Barry as his assistant -- having worked with him previously at Chelsea and Bayern Munich -- while James Melbourne left his job as the Blues' head of performance analysis to work with England.

Hilario joined Chelsea as a player in 2006 and made 39 appearances for the club before joining the coaching setup.

Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca is likely to provide an update on the situation at a news conference on Thursday but he is unlikely to seek a replacement given they already have another goalkeeping coach, Michele De Bernardin, on the books in addition to assistant coach and former goalkeeper Willy Caballero.

The FA also declined to comment when contacted by ESPN but sources added that talks will take place over adding a black and minority ethnic (BAME) coach to his staff.

Together with the Professional Footballers' Association, the FA launched an Elite Coaching Placement Programme in 2018 to increase BAME representation across all England teams.

As a result, the England's men's team have employed Chris Powell, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Ashley Cole but the latter is set to return with interim head coach Lee Carsley to working with the under-21s group when Tuchel begins work.