The Rugby Football Union has been warned it will continue to be viewed as "arrogant and self-serving" if it declines to share with Samoa a "significant chunk" of the £10M ($13.3M) it will make from the fixture at Twickenham on Nov. 25. The RFU is considering a request from the Samoan Rugby Union for a £160,000 ($212,100) "goodwill payment." Former Fiji Rugby Sevens coach Ben Ryan said that the RFU should give more than £1M ($1.33) "to help develop the game" (LONDON TIMES, 11/1).
Cricket Australia "implemented a long-term plan to reduce the incidence of spinal injuries in fast bowlers as James Pattinson prepares for career-saving back surgery in New Zealand." A detailed annual CA injury report revealed 3.6 new lumbar spine bone stress injuries per 100 players last season -- "slightly above the 10-year average" (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, 11/1).
England cricket players agreed to "sensible" rules for drinking on the Ashes tour of Australia but "there will be no curfews," coach Trevor Bayliss said. Bayliss: "Not drinking between matches is just sensible. There's been no set curfews. I think they're just sensible rulings. To me, they're what we should be sticking to anyway as a player or someone around a professional setup. The players have sat down and had a chat and they're the ones that've come up with it" (BBC, 11/1).
Int'l Cycling Union (UCI) President David Lappartient pledged to "try and reduce Grand Tour teams to just six riders." He said, "There were 10 riders in the teams, and we managed to go down to nine, but I'm going to go further, and six riders per team would be better." Grand Tour teams are "already set for a trim" with numbers being reduced from nine to eight for the '18 season (CYCLING NEWS, 11/1).
The World Boxing Council "ordered an immediate rematch" between Shinsuke Yamanaka and Luis Nery for the bantamweight title on Tuesday, three months after the latter failed a drug test. The sanctioning body issued a ruling that said, "The WBC cannot make a determination with sufficient certainty as to whether Mr. Nery's adverse finding was the result of intentional ingestion of a banned substance to improve performance" (KYODO 11/1).
