BBC Sport Wales runs the rule over coach Wayne Pivac's win-loss ratio as his side prepares to start the Autumn Nations Cup against Ireland in Dublin.

Read more: Liam Williams column - a fresh start in autumn

Listen: Scrum V podcast - Ireland v Wales previewed

Former sevens player Helena Rowland will make her first XVs start for England at fly-half as head coach Simon Middleton gives his younger players a chance to impress against France.

Zoe Harrison starts at 12, with stand-in captain Emily Scarratt at 13.

Back-to-back Grand Slam champions England face France twice this autumn - with both matches live on BBC Two.

The Red Roses were supposed to spend the autumn in New Zealand and Australia preparing for the 2021 World Cup but changed plans because of the pandemic.

They now play their closest Six Nations rivals, who they beat 19-13 in the opening match of the 2020 championship.

And Middleton is glad it gives players like 21-year-old Rowland, who earned her first XVs cap when she came off the bench in the final Six Nations game against Italy, the chance to face challenging opponents away from home.

"We see this fixture as a big opportunity for some of our younger players to play away in France, which is always one of our toughest games," he said.

"Given our two 2021 Six Nations games against France and Italy are both at home, this is a big opportunity to compete against top quality opposition away from home ahead of next year's World Cup.

"Helena Rowland has really impressed since her return to XVs with Loughborough and deserves her chance. We're really looking forward to seeing her link up with Zoe [Harrison].

"We know what Katy Daley-Mclean can do on the big stage and the presence she brings and see this as an opportunity for others."

Centre Amber Reed, who helped England beat Italy two weeks ago, misses out because of an ankle injury while scrum-half Natasha Hunt is continuing return to play protocols after testing positive for coronavirus.

Alex Matthews, who also joined Middleton's team after England sevens' funding was cut, starts at blind-side flanker and Ellie Kildunne is at full-back.

With prop Sarah Bern injured in her Premier 15s game last weekend, Shaunagh Brown starts in the front row and Harlequins team-mate Amy Cokayne joins her at hooker.

World Cup-winning prop Laura Keates is set to earn her first cap since March 2017 off the bench, while 18-year-old lock Morwenna Talling is also among the replacements.

There is no obvious replacement fly-half, with wing Kelly Smith and back Megan Jones joining scrum-half Claudia MacDonald on the bench.

"It is all set to be a typical ding-dong France game with maybe one score in it," Middleton added.

"We have beaten them the last five times we have played them but only one game has been by more than one or two scores. England against France is always a great game."

England games to be shown on BBC Two

Saturday's game in Grenoble will be shown live on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer, as will the return fixture at Twickenham on 21 November.

RFU head of women's performance Nicky Ponsford said: "We are delighted that the BBC will be showing our two autumn matches.

"We have two strong teams competing and expect two tough matches. We know how important visibility is in growing the women's game and will be aiming to put on a show for everyone watching from home."

Line-up

England: Kildunne; Breach, Scarratt (capt), Harrison, Dow; Rowland, Riley; Cornborough, Cokayne, Brown, Ward (vice-capt), Cleall, Matthews, Packer, Beckett.

Replacements: Davies, Harper, Keates, Talling, Millar-Mills, MacDonald, Smith, Jones.

Wasps flanker Jack Willis will make his England debut against Georgia in the Autumn Nations Cup, with centre Ollie Lawrence given a first Test start.

Lawrence, who came off the bench for his debut in the Six Nations win over Italy, is at outside centre and partners Henry Slade in the midfield.

Uncapped Bristol back Max Malins is named among the replacements.

"Georgia will be a tough opponent, so we have a team with some real power in midfield," said head coach Eddie Jones.

"We have a good mix of youth and experience across the squad and they are completely focused on putting in an excellent performance on Saturday."

After being denied a first international cap in 2018 because of injury, 23-year-old Willis took the domestic scene by storm last season, winning three top awards as Wasps reached the Premiership final.

"Jack couldn't have had more accolades this season, but he will continue to get his head down and work hard, that is all he really knows," said Wasps captain Joe Launchbury, who lines up alongside Charlie Ewels in the second row.

Ellis Genge, Jamie George and Will Stuart complete the forwards, with prop Stuart making his first England start.

Ben Youngs and Owen Farrell are the half-backs, while Elliot Daly returns at full-back with Jonathan Joseph and Jonny May on the wings.

England: Daly; Joseph, Lawrence, Slade, May; Farrell (capt), Youngs; Genge, George, Stuart, Launchbury, Ewels, Itoje, Willis, B Vunipola.

Replacements: Dunn, M Vunipola, Sinckler, Earl, Curry, Robson, Malins, Marchant.

VIVIAN, La. – Matt Sheppard capitalized on an early-race restart, launching from third to the lead to capture the opening night victory of the Bob Hilbert Sportswear Short Track Super Series Cajun Swing Wednesday at Ark-La-Tex Speedway.

The triumph is Sheppard’s 13th overall and second in as many races in Bob Hilbert Sportswear Short Track Super Series competition, coming less than two weeks after his win at Georgetown (Del.) Speedway as part of the Mid-Atlantic Championship Weekend.

“Man, it’s awesome to be down here in Louisiana,” Sheppard said in victory lane after his $4,000 triumph. “What a race track we had tonight and it’s nice to start the week with a win.”

The Savannah, N.Y., resident redrew fourth after running away with the night’s first heat but snatched the lead on just the second lap after a pair of early cautions. With just one lap in, Sheppard was shot out of a cannon from third and tiptoed around the bottom to take the lead out of turn two. After securing the lead, Sheppard went to the top shelf and used the very outside of a racy track on Wednesday night to lead the ensuing 39 laps.

“I had a better launch off turn four on the bottom, but I definitely wanted to race up top,” Sheppard said of his decision to choose the bottom immediately after cautions. “This engine runs so good and the car was so hooked up on the restarts, I wanted to restart on the bottom and race up top.”

Despite a dominating effort, Sheppard did defend a slew of charges from second-place finishing Mike Gular. From the eighth-starting spot, Gular advanced to third by lap six and moved into the runner-up position on the seventh circuit, using the bottom to pass Cajun Swing teammate Jeff Strunk.

“I was really trying to make the bottom work,” Gular explained. “This is a good track down here, real racy, and I’m excited for another night.”

Gular’s pass for second led to Strunk and Stewart Friesen waging war for the final podium position. Once Friesen cleared for third, Strunk, Jack Lehner and pole-sitting John Willman swapped spots before Lehner moved into fourth on lap 13.

Just after the midway point of the 40-lap feature event, the top-three entered hectic lapped traffic as Gular and Friesen both closed on Sheppard. On lap 27, Friesen surged to the outside for second, but Gular used lappers to his advantage and fended off his challenges by sticking to the bottom.

“Lapped traffic was definitely tough,” Gular said. “Just racing with people you don’t know or aren’t familiar with is a different challenge.”

Just two laps later, though, the caution flew again, this time for a left-rear flat on the Halmar International-sponsored No. 44, forcing Friesen pit side with 11 laps to go.

Once more, Sheppard led Gular on the restart with Strunk passing Lehner for third and Modified rookie Derrick McGrew Jr. rounding out the top five. As the top three separated from the field, Lehner, McGrew and Willman danced for position before McGrew slowed with eight circuits remaining.

On the ensuing restart, Lehner passed Willman back for fourth and then, after changing a tire and coming from the back, Friesen bolted back inside the top five. The recently-crowned STSS South Region champion, Friesen bashed the outside curb around Willman for fifth with just six laps left, dispatched of Lehner while the flagman held up five fingers and finally moved around Strunk for third on the final lap.

“We had a really good car tonight,” Friesen said of his third-place finish. “We were really good on the longer runs but we just ran out of laps at the end.

Strunk capped the night in fourth while Lehner rounded out the top five.

Neil Kemp won the accompanying 25-lap Factory Stock main, earning $1,000 for his efforts, while Brandon Ball took the 20-lap Limited Modified feature.

The finish:

Matt Sheppard, Mike Gular, Stewart Friesen, Jeff Strunk, Jack Lehner, John Willman, Caleb Dillard, Jeff Heotzler, Dave Rauscher, Greg Dillard, Kory Keimig, Eric Williams, James Griffin, Glenn Stone Jr., Derrick McGrew Jr., Tommy Hall, Tommy Rascoe, Brother Fowlkes, Jimmy McCommas, Shane Hebert, Joe Roswell, David Forbis, Keith Badiali.

As Brett Riley paced the streets of his girlfriend's Vermont neighborhood in early June, cell phone to ear, stretching the definition of what an unlimited minutes plan is supposed to look like, he was selling a dream. It was a dream of which he had no inkling just months prior, and one that only actually existed at the time in the abstract.

Riley was trying to convince junior players from around the world that their Division I college hockey aspirations were draped in the unique blue-and-gold color scheme of the Long Island University Sharks. The LIU athletic department had announced in late April that men's hockey would be added to its roster of sport offerings. And the bold plan was to begin play the following season, in 2020-21.

With no coach, no players and no schedule, the college hockey world snickered at the thought of building a program on that timeline even in the best of circumstances. But during a pandemic? Forget about it. When the program was announced, the state of New York was still in the throes of a seemingly dire battle with the rapidly spreading coronavirus. And just a month earlier, the college hockey season had shut down before completion.

But sure enough, the Sharks are set to debut this Saturday on the road against Army (4 p.m. ET).

With uncertainty about whether there would even be a 2020-21 season, how could a school think it had the wherewithal to build a program to compete in that time frame? And how did it ultimately pull it off?

Finding the right coach

It's hard not being the Colorado Avalanche these days.

They're a Stanley Cup favorite, with only six of the 20 players under contract over the age of 30. They have Nathan MacKinnon, considered by many to be the best all-around hockey player in the world. They have defenseman Cale Makar, the 22-year-old point machine who just captured the Calder Trophy. They're deeper than the Marianas Trench, thanks to a perfect storm of contracts below market value and deals signed by players in their youth that have allowed the Avalanche to assemble a preposterous collection of talent under a flat salary cap while other teams are selling off assets.

And this offseason, they've ... gotten even better. Under general manager Joe Sakic -- with a primary assist from assistant GM Chris MacFarland and analytics sages such as Arik Parnass -- the Avalanche earned an A grade on our offseason report card. They added Brandon Saad, with Chicago picking up part of the salary, and subtracted Nikita Zadorov. They added Devon Toews to replace Zadorov, because the Islanders were capped out. He's quite good.

What are we going to pick apart here? Not improving on the fourth-best goaltending in the league (.913 save percentage)? Not spending Pegula money on a year of Taylor Hall?

In asking a few confidants around the NHL about the team that had the best offseason, a handful of the responses started with "besides the Avs?"

So rather than state the obvious, we decided to heap praise on some teams that had -- in our estimation -- sneaky good offseasons. Some were straight-up great. Some saw their good work overshadowed by controversial, attention-diverting decisions. But in the long run, their offseasons were better than you might have expected.

Here are five teams that had sneaky good offseasons (so far):

AUGUSTA, Ga. – At 7 a.m. ET, the 84^th Masters Tournament officially commenced, 579 days after the conclusion of No. 83.

Starters Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus opened the tournament with a pair honorary tee shots on the first hole.

“Nice of all you guys to come out here this time of the morning,” Player told a gathering of more than 200 people, including media, those in green jackets and other observers. No patrons are allowed on site this week.

Player, a three-time Masters champion, hit first. Nicklaus, a record-six-time Masters winner, who had wife Barbara as his honorary caddie, went second.

The initial shots rang out at Augusta National Golf Club around sunrise, though, the sun was well hidden behind the clouds and haze. The Friday forecast called for rain, including thunderstorms, throughout the morning and leading into the early part of the afternoon.

Only light drops fell, however, as the legendary twosome initiated a Masters that nearly never was. The event, normally scheduled in April, was postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Thirty-five minutes after those two shots, a horn sounded to suspend play.

It was announced on Monday that Lee Elder, the first Black player to compete in the Masters, in 1975, would join Nicklaus and Player as an honorary starter in 2021.

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Twenty-five minutes after the first groups teed off in the 84th Masters Tournament,  play was suspended because of approaching inclement weather.

The first groups went out at 7:10 a.m. ET, 10 minutes after Gary Player’s and Jack Nicklaus’ ceremonial tee shots. Going off the first and 10th tees at Augusta National Golf Club, no threesome made it through two holes before the siren sounded.

Only three groups posted scores.

The weather forecast calls for rain, including thunderstorms, throughout Thursday morning, with conditions clearing in the afternoon. Once the storm clears, the current forecast for the area looks promising, with a 10% chance of rain on Friday, 0% chance of rain on Saturday and 20% chance of rain on Sunday.

The Masters Tournament is employing threesomes and split tees over the first two – and final – rounds because decreased November daylight and TV times. Officials had planned on twosomes going off the first tee on Saturday, but that might change because of Thursday’s delay.

Liverpool forward Diogo Jota has said he feels let down by the 80 rating he has been given in EA Sports' "FIFA 21" game.

The Portugal international, who joined Liverpool from Wolves in September for £41 million, won the inaugural ePremier League Invitational in April -- beating Trent Alexander-Arnold -- to show he knows what he is talking about when it comes to FIFA.

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"I think they were taken by surprise with my move to Liverpool," Jota told Portuguese channel TVI. "They thought I was going to stay at Wolves and didn't even bother to upgrade my card's attributes.

"Although I was one of the best scorers in the Europa League, unfortunately, they did not bother to change my card."

Jota scored 44 goals in a total of 131 appearances for Wolves, including hat tricks in last season's Europa League wins over Besiktas and Espanyol.

His rating in the virtual football game has remained the same as in last year's edition.

Jota has scored seven goals in 11 appearances since joining Liverpool.

The 23-year-old was named Player of the Week in the last round of the Champions League after his hat trick in Liverpool's 5-0 win over Atalanta.

A big fan of the virtual game since his childhood, Jota has shared his results online with fans.

"I like to play FIFA, I always liked it, it was something I always did and I still do," Jota said. "After I got home from school, I would do my homework and then I would start playing. I also went to the backyard to play ball, but I always spent a lot of time holding on to the controller. "

Jota is nevertheless looking forward to receiving his Pro Player Card, a special 99-rated card real-life footballers receive in FIFA Ultimate Team.

"As long as they send me my 99 card, which it seems every professional player is entitled to, I am happy," he said.

Liverpool defender Joe Gomez is facing a long-term lay-off that will see him miss the majority the season after undergoing surgery to repair a damaged knee tendon.

The severity of the injury has delivered a further blow to Liverpool's defensive problems, with Virgil van Dijk already battling to play again this season following cruciate ligament surgery and Trent Alexander-Arnold out for at least a month with a calf injury.

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Gomez was injured in training with the England squad on Wednesday during preparations for Thursday's friendly against the Republic of Ireland at Wembley.

Surgery has confirmed that the 23-year-old did not suffer ligament damage, but having successfully repaired the damaged tendon, Liverpool are yet to declare a timescale for the player's return to fitness.

A statement read: "Liverpool Football Club can confirm Joe Gomez has today undergone successful surgery to repair a tendon in his left knee.

"The centre-back sustained the injury during a training session with the England national team on Wednesday. The issue was isolated to Gomez's tendon, with no damage to any other associated knee ligaments.

"The operation to correct the damage, which took place in London on Thursday morning, was a success and the 23-year-old will make a full recovery.

"Gomez will begin a rehabilitation programme with the Reds' medical team immediately, with club staff carefully monitoring his progress."

Sources have told ESPN that the club have not yet ruled Gomez out of their plans for this season.

With Gomez and Van Dijk ruled out for a long-term period, Joel Matip is now the only fit, senior centre-half available to manager Jurgen Klopp.

Dejan Lovren, the Croatia international, has not been replaced since his summer sale to Zenit Saint Petersburg.