England and Sale centre Manu Tuilagi has taken up salsa dancing to aid his recovery from an Achilles injury.

The 29-year-old could return for Sale's final Premiership games and the play-offs if they progress, and in turn earn a place on the Lions tour.

"Manu's walking and learning salsa," said Sale director of rugby Alex Sanderson.

He added: "If you're hiking and doing salsa you can't be far off playing rugby.

"The salsa is for his ankle and a wife of one of the players is taking [coronavirus] tests because she's able to teach him salsa.

"I haven't watched him salsa, but he's good with his feet for a big guy."

Tuilagi, who has played 43 times for England, has also been hiking in an attempt to return to full fitness after missing the autumn internationals and Six Nations with the injury.

"I went for a 7.5km hike with him around Macclesfield Forest last Friday and he was on great form," said Sanderson.

"We went up to the highest point of Macc Forest. He was climbing over boulders and it's really undulating terrain, that's why we took him. He's got another one this Friday that's 10km.

"It's about seven to eight weeks for him, maybe. Definitely he'll play again this season. It's good to see him up and about. He's a good lad so he's adding energy to the place."

Tuilagi joined Sale from Leicester Tigers in July 2020 and made seven appearances before the injury.

Premiership Rugby is prepared to relax its rules to allow Scotland players to feature in a rearranged Six Nations match against France.

The most likely date is now 26 March - outside the international window.

Stuart Hogg and Jonny Gray of Exeter, Gloucester's Chris Harris and Sean Maitland of Saracens are among Scotland's key England-based players.

Sale's Ewan Ashman, Bath pair Josh Bayliss and Jamie Bhatti, Worcester's Cornell du Preez, Harlequins duo James Lang and Scott Steele and another Saracens back, Duncan Taylor, have also been involved in Gregor Townsend's squad this season.

Fly-half Finn Russell plays his club rugby in France with Racing 92.

France head coach Fabien Galthie was backed by his federation despite leaving the squad's bubble on the opening weekend of the Six Nations.

Eleven players, including captain Charles Ollivon, tested positive for coronavirus, eventually leading to Scotland's visit being postponed.

Townsend's side, who opened with victory in England before losing narrowly at home to Wales, are scheduled to host Ireland on 14 March then Italy six days later.

The Premiership normally refuses to release players for any games outside of World Rugby's allocated international window but it's believed the clubs are open to making a special exception in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.

'Only thing they can do is award Scotland points'

Ugo Monye on the Rugby Union Weekly podcast

I think the game is going to get forfeited and I would not be surprised if the French government take France out of this competition. That's where we're at. But I'd love to see this tournament completed in full with no asterisk, nothing.

Danny Care on the Rugby Union Weekly podcast

I don't know when they're going to find a place for this fixture. Probably the only thing that they can do is award the points to Scotland for this round.

Hopefully, the French players, the whole squad, is tested vigorously and they can still continue with their last two games. We need a completed tournament.

The Rugby World Cup 2021 is set to be postponed until next year following a recommendation by governing body World Rugby.

A final decision is expected after the Rugby World Cup board and World Rugby's executive committee consider the recommendation on 8 and 9 March.

World Rugby said the "challenging Covid landscape" influenced its decision.

It added: "It has become clear in recent discussions with key partners including New Zealand Rugby, the New Zealand government and participating unions, that, given the scale of the event and the Covid-19 related uncertainties, it is just not possible to deliver the environment for all teams to be the best that they can be on the sport's greatest stage."

The country's borders are currently closed to almost all travellers and cases have recently emerged in Auckland, one of the country's host cities.

"We are naturally disappointed but understanding of the decision," said Nicky Ponsford, the Rugby Football Union's head of women's performance.

"Player welfare has to be prioritised and ensuring teams both qualify on the pitch and can perform to their best at the tournament is also vitally important for the game."

Anthony Eddy, Irish Rugby's director of women's rugby, added: "We're obviously disappointed.

"We have always put player welfare at the heart of everything we do and that's never been as important as it has over the past 12 months."

Charlotte Wathan, the Welsh Rugby Union's general manager, women's rugby said, "We're obviously very disappointed for the players and staff who have supported the development of the programme towards RWC 2021.

"Ultimately, player welfare and public health must come first at this time."

'Agreeing quarantine arrangements proved too much' - analysis

Sara Orchard, 5 Live Rugby & BBC Sport reporter

New Zealand has always been viewed as one of the best places on the planet to be hosting a major sporting event in 2021, with some of the lowest Covid numbers in the world.

However, hosting an additional 11 arriving Test sides and agreeing suitable quarantine arrangements has proved too much.

It is the first time the women's tournament has been hosted by a southern hemisphere nation, and it's thought the event will be rearranged for 2022.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tickets are now available for the 37th running of the All American 400 at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, scheduled for Oct. 29-31.

The All American 400 weekend is Nashville’s marquee event, cumulating with the super late model race on Sunday. Past winners of the race include short track aces Bubba Pollard and Mason Mingus, along with NASCAR stars Chase Elliott, John Hunter Nemechek, Daniel Hemric, and Chris Gabehart. Last year former Nashville late model track champion, Casey Roderick went to victory lane.

In addition to super late models and pro late models on Sunday, the All American 400 Race Weekend features the Van Hoy Oil CRA Street Stock Series and Vores Compact Touring Series on Saturday night. Action begins on the quarter-mile track on Friday evening with track championships for the limited late models, street stocks, pure stocks, front runners, legends and bandoleros.

Tickets are also now on sale for the ARCA Menards Series East Music City 200 set for Saturday, May 8th. This event will also feature the North/South Super Late Model Challenge 100 tri-sanctioned race by the ARCA/CRA Super Series, Southern Super Series and CARS Super Late Model Tour. The JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour and Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway Pro Late Models will also be in action with a 100-lap feature.

Tickets can be purchased at nashvillefairgroundsspeedway.racing or by calling the Speedway Box Office at 615-254-1986.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The 59th running of the Rolex 24 At Daytona Jan. 30-31 was one of the most competitive in the history of the iconic event. Still, it had a familiar ending.

Wayne Taylor Racing won the event on Daytona Int’l Speedway’s 3.56-mile road course for the third consecutive year, but there weren’t a lot of similarities between the team that topped the race in 2020 and the squad that triumphed in this year’s edition of the twice-around-the-clock endurance classic.

After 28 years of running General Motors race cars, most recently Cadillac DPi machines, the Florida-based team, operated by former driver Wayne Taylor, made the speedy offseason change to Acura ARX-05 DPi machines.

Ricky Taylor returned to his dad’s team, along with Filipe Albuquerque, Alexander Rossi and three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves as the familiar Konica Minolta No. 10 used a completely different driver lineup than the previous season.

With Albuquerque at the wheel during the stretch run, the Taylor team outran the No. 48 Cadillac fielded by Action Express Racing and shared by Kamui Kobayashi, Simon Pagenaud, Mike Rockenfeller and seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson by 4.704 seconds.

However, up until the final few laps, it appeared Chip Ganassi Racing was poised to snatch the set of Rolex Oyster Perpetual Cosmograph Daytona watches from the grip of the WTR team, courtesy of an inspired drive by Renger van der Zande, who won the Rolex 24 with the Taylor team in 2020.

Aboard Ganassi’s No. 01 Cadillac, Van der Zande was chasing down Albuquerque during the closing laps when the right-rear tire on Van der Zande’s car shredded with eight minutes left on the clock. As the Ganassi-owned Cadillac limped to pit road, Albuquerque held off Kobayashi to give Acura its first Daytona victory.

“I could almost see his (Van der Zande’s) eyes in my mirrors,” said Albuquerque. “He was so hungry for this, especially with the story of him leaving Wayne Taylor (Racing) and having to go to another team.

“He was faster, definitely, but it’s one thing to catch … it’s another thing to pass,” added Albuquerque. “He was really pushing hard. I was lucky they had a puncture, but he was really pushing hard in that bus stop (backstretch chicane). Still, congratulations to Chip Ganassi, Renger and all of them. They ran a really strong race.

“I think this was a hell of a show, probably the hardest race of my life. Beautiful.”

The winning team completed 807 laps, a race distance of 2,876.14 miles, to top at Daytona for the fourth time in five years.

“I could probably tell you that today was one of the best days I’ve ever had,” Wayne Taylor said after the race. “It was a very, very special day.”

In late September, seven weeks before the end of the 2020 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season, Taylor confirmed that WTR had signed with Acura for the 2021 season.

During that short time frame, the team had to acquire and assemble the equipment, hire drivers with experience in the Acura ARX-05 and get the car ready to race.

The reward, aside from the victory itself, was sharing it with his sons. While Ricky Taylor was helping WTR claim the overall and Daytona Prototype international class victory, Taylor’s other son, Jordan, helped Corvette Racing win the GT Le Mans class.

In 2017, WTR won the Rolex 24 for the first time, with Ricky and Jordan joining Max Angelelli and Jeff Gordon as co-drivers. The latest victory, Wayne Taylor said, could be even better than the first.

“It’s hard to say I could top what happened in 2017 when I won with both of my kids, but today we won it with Ricky, Jordan won the GT class for Corvette and the Wayne Taylor Racing program won it overall,” he said humbly. “It’s given me a new lease on life. Quite honestly, I was getting bored.”

As a driver, Wayne Taylor was legendary, winning two Rolex 24s, three IMSA championships and the LMP1 class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1998.

Taylor the team owner has two championships, a win in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, three Motul Petit Le Mans victories and four Rolex 24 At Daytona triumphs.

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AUSTIN, Texas – A trio of NASCAR Cup Series champions hit the track at Circuit of the Americas for the first time on Tuesday as part of a Goodyear tire test in preparation for the inaugural EchoPark Texas Grand Prix at the 3.41-mile road course.

Defending NASCAR Cup Series champion Chase Elliott, 2012 Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski and 2017 Cup Series champion Martin Truex Jr. each got the chance to make laps at the facility in preparation for the race.

Elliott, who has won five times on road courses during his NASCAR Cup Series career, was complimentary of Circuit of the Americas after making his first laps around the track.

“The track’s fun. It has a lot of character to it, I feel like,” Elliott said. “I’ve never been here, never seen it before in person before today and really haven’t watched a ton of races here, so it’s really been a pretty steep learning curve for me, trying to piece together all the different parts of the track and understand where you need to be good and how to make it flow. Trying to learn, but it’s been fun.”

Keselowski said the track requires a certain amount of finesse in order to navigate the corners, but also noted that you can carry a lot of speed at different points around the track.

“It’s different than a lot of road courses we go to – very high-speed,” Keselowski said when describing Circuit of the Americas. “This section over here, it’s about 185 mph. Then you slow down to about 30, so – 185 to 30, you know that’s a heck of a ride. I know it would make my wife sick if she was riding with me. And you really have to finesse the cars down in the corners.”

In particular, Keselowski said there are several fun sections around the track that make it a unique but fun challenge for him as a driver.

“There are a couple of spots that certainly stand out as being a lot of fun,” Keselowski said. “The esses are such a rhythm section. You feel like you’re doing a Tango dance with your feet. You have to be really precise and hit everything perfectly. So there’s a really strong rhythm section on the front half of the course, and then the back half of the course, kind of the ballsy place is the entry to this really high-speed corner section. Again, 185 mph down to 35 mph, you know it. You’re going at that corner really, really fast. You’re pushing it to the limit, and it really stands out.”

Truex, who owns two road course victories in NASCAR Cup Series competition, said he watched a few minutes of in-car footage before coming to Circuit of the Americas in an effort to prepare himself for the test.

However, he said that in-car footage didn’t prepare him for the nuances of Circuit of the Americas.

“I literally watched five minutes of in-car footage last night, I think it was a Porsche going around this place, and I was like, ‘OK, this looks pretty straightforward,’” Truex said. “Then you get out here and you’ve got the elevation changes. You’ve got the blind corners. Those are the things that take time to learn because you’ve got to go off of instinct more than what you’re seeing. It’s all about markers and points on the track and when you turn in and what gear you’re in and how much speed you’re carrying and finding the brake points and all those things.

“It takes over two minutes to get around here, so if you make a mistake, you’ve got to wait two minutes to correct it, and you can’t forget it when you come back around. It was interesting to do that and a lot of fun to do that.”

NASCAR will debut at Circuit of the Americas May 21-23, with the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Cup Series all scheduled to compete for the first time at the track.

STAMFORD, Conn. – NBC Sports has announced its Progressive American Flat Track schedule for the upcoming season on NBCSN.

The network will present coverage of all 17 races of the most historic form of American motorcycle racing, beginning with the Volusia Half-Mile I and II from Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla., on March 20 at Noon ET.

“American Flat Track is a staple of our motorsports programming on NBCSN and we are very excited to continue our partnership in 2021,” said Rene Karfias, senior manager, programming, NBC Sports.

Progressive AFT is returning to NBCSN for a fifth consecutive season in 2021.

“The growth of American Flat Track over the last few years has been fueled and greatly assisted by our partnership with NBC,” said Michael Lock, CEO of Progressive AFT. “We are very excited with the great scheduling of the Series for the 2021 season on NBCSN and the biggest ‘bang for the buck’ in motorsports, delivered by the live streaming package available on TrackPass.”

In addition to the 17 weekend premieres on NBCSN, TrackPass on NBC Sports Gold will provide exclusive live streaming coverage of every race throughout the season. With the AFT package on TrackPass on NBC Sports Gold, users gain unlimited access to AFT content live and on-demand on any device for only $1.99 a month. For more details, click here.

Below is the schedule for Progressive AFT’s premiere telecasts on NBCSN (subject to change):

Date – Race – Time (ET)
Sat., March 20 – Volusia Half-Mile I – Noon
Sat., March 20 – Volusia Half-Mile II – 1 p.m.
Sun., May 2 – Atlanta Super TT – 10:30 p.m.
Sat., May 29 – Texas Half-Mile – 8 p.m.
Sun., June 6 – Chicago Half-Mile – 5 p.m.
Sat., June 26 – OKC Mile I – Noon
Sat., June 26 – OKC Mile II – 1 p.m.
Sat., July 3 – Lima Half-Mile – 5 p.m.
Sun., August 8 – DuQuoin Mile – 11 p.m.
Sun, August 15 – Port Royal Half-Mile – 10 p.m.
Sun., August 22 – New York Short Track – 9:30 p.m.
Sun., August 29 – Peoria TT – 8 p.m.
Sun., September 12 – Springfield Mile I – 9 p.m.
Sun., September 12 – Springfield Mile II – 10 p.m.
Sun., September 26 – TBA Round 15 – 11 p.m.
Sun., September 26 – TBA Round 16 – Midnight
Sat., October 9 – Charlotte Half-Mile – 10:30 p.m.

MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Harold Annett, the father of JR Motorsports NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Michael Annett and a longtime supporter of motorsports, died Monday after a brief illness.

Harold Annett was the chairman of TMC Transportation, an employee-owned open-deck transportation company. He was a major supporter of motorsports through the years and sponsored race cars in a number of different series.

The TMC Transportation colors are perhaps best recognized as appearing on the No. 1 entry of Sammy Swindell in the late 1980s and early ’90s. While flying the TMC Transportation colors, Swindell drove to 89 World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series victory and 145 overall wins from 1988 to ’93.

TMC Transportation continues to be active in motorsports as a sponsor, most recently sponsor Michael Annett in select events at JR Motorsports since 2017.

The company also sponsored a midget driven by Karsyn Elledge when she raced in the USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Series in 2019 and also supports asphalt late model driver Sammy Smith.

To honor Harold Annett, the No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet driven by Michael Annett will feature a tribute decal on the roof rail for the remainder of the season, and the three other JRM cars will carry it this weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

In addition, all four of JR Motorsports’ Peterbilt transporters will carry a special decal for the season’s entirety. The No. 1 team’s Featherlite trailer will have the decal prominently displayed for the remainder of the season as well.

Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby has been placed on the COVID-19 protocols list and is not available for Tuesday's game against the Flyers.

"We didn't have a morning skate this morning due to the NHL's COVID protocol," Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said.

Crosby, 33, leads the team in scoring with seven goals and 11 assists in 20 games. He was held off the scoresheet in Pittsburgh's 2-0 loss to the Islanders Sunday.

The news comes a day after the NHL had a season-low four players in the COVID-19 protocol.

Pittsburgh currently sits fifth in the highly competitive East Division, two points behind the Flyers. Philadelphia swept a pair from the Penguins at home to start the season. The cross-state rivals are playing in Pittsburgh on both Tuesday and Thursday.

Tuesday night's game will be the first game with fans in attendance at PPG Paints Arena since last March. Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf eased coronavirus restrictions on Monday, allowing 15% attendance at indoor venues. The Penguins plan to cap attendance at 2,800 fans.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.