Former world number one Venus Williams has turned down a wildcard for next month's Indian Wells tournament.

Organisers said last week the 44-year-old had been invited but the seven-time Grand Slam singles champion has not taken it up.

"Our team has been informed that Venus is not accepting the wildcard this year," the event posted on X in a statement attributed to tournament director Tommy Haas.

"We wish Venus all the best and hope to see her back in Indian Wells in the future."

Williams has dropped to 974th in the world and has not played a WTA Tour-level match since losing in the first round of the Miami Open last March.

She earlier told the TennisWeekly podcast she would not be making her return at the Indian Wells tournament, which runs from 2-16 March.

"I'm not playing - I'm going to be overseas. I'm not going to be here," she said.

Britain's Dan Evans lost to Russian Karen Khachanov in the first round of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship.

Evans, who received a wildcard for the tournament, had won all five of their previous meetings, including a five-and-a-half-hour classic at last year's US Open.

However, world number 24 Khachanov triumphed 6-1 6-3 in one hour 20 minutes.

He will face Greek fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas or Lorenzo Sonego of Italy in the second round.

Watch the best moments from week three of the Six Nations, including a rousing choir in Cardiff, Fin Smith's "monster" kick for England and France's multiple tries against Italy.

READ MORE: Five talking points from Six Nations round three

WATCH MORE: Singing Adele & cracking jokes - Marler's BBC Sport debut

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"It's a real honour to be signing with the Ospreys," said Nayacalevu.

"There's some world-class talent here and I'm looking forward to playing alongside them.

"Stepping into a team where quality experience is combined with exciting potential is ideal for me at this stage of my career.

"I believe I can contribute heavily to the squad this season, both on and off the field."

Ospreys are 13th in the United Rugby Championship (URC) and have not given up hope of reaching the play-offs by finishing in the top eight, while they also face Scarlets in Europe's Challenge Cup last 16 in early April.

Watkin suffered a serious knee injury playing for Wales against France in the Six Nations opener in January and will miss the rest of the season.

"It's not often a player of Waisea's calibre becomes available in the season," said Ospreys head coach Mark Jones.

"He brings a wealth of experience and leadership credentials with him, which can only be a good thing for our youngsters coming through.

"We feel Waisea can make an instant impact and be a real difference for us in Owen's absence.

"It stands us in good stead in a season where we still have a lot to play for."

For the second game in this championship, Ireland were behind at half-time against Wales before scoring 17 unanswered points to secure their 19th Six Nations victory from their past 21 games.

The hosts were certainly better than advertised throughout their 15th consecutive loss - Easterby called commentary around Wales in the build-up "unnecessary" - but the head coach feels his side will need to improve against France.

"Yeah, we'll need to be better. There's things we weren't good enough at [on Saturday] and we gave Wales the opportunity to get into the game, but also they played well.

"They did things which we expected and we certainly weren't coming into the game underestimating what they could achieve with a different mentality, different coaching group. They were always going to get a bounce and we saw that."

Ireland have won their past two meetings with France but lost the three before that.

In recent seasons, it has come to be billed as the championship's key fixture with the winner going on to claim the title in each of the past three years.

"It's exciting that we get a chance after two away games to go home and play in the Aviva," added Easterby.

"I think we're really looking forward to that and I'd say it will be a cracking atmosphere. They will be challenging, of course they will.

"We'll feel like we've had a couple of good wins against them recently but we also know they've got great strengths and we need to get better ourselves."

In January, it was announced that this year's Six Nations will use 20-minute red cards for the first time.

Lawmakers say the 20-minute red card trial is designed to "punish the player and not the team", with sides able to replace a dismissed player after 20 minutes instead of playing the rest of the game with 14.

Ireland centre Garry Ringrose got his timing wrong on a big first-half hit on Wales' Ben Thomas and his high tackle was later upgraded to red.

With Ireland down to 14, Wales had their best period of the match and scored a superb try in the corner through Tom Rogers.

Once the 20 minutes passed, Bundee Aki replaced Ringrose and played a key role in seeing the game home for Ireland.

"Ringrose is an exceptional player and defends so physically but in my opinion those collisions need to be out of the game," Barclay said.

"That is a player who has made a decision to fly in. In my view, and a lot of other people, that should be a straight red card."

Warburton says players' behaviours have not changed enough since he retired in 2018.

"There needs to be a much firmer punishment on individuals off the field," he said. "If Ringrose gets a one or two-week ban then he is going to do that again.

"A four-week ban and he probably doesn't do that tackle again. We need to punish the player individually much more harshly off the field."

Finn Russell's wayward form off the tee has cost more points than any other front-line kicker in this year's Six Nations, according to Opta stats.

Russell, who missed only one of 24 kicks in last season's tournament, has landed just three from eight in Scotland's three matches so far this campaign.

Opta's 'expected points' model - which predicts a cumulative points return based on where kicks are taken from, a kicker's previous success rate and even venue-specific factors such as altitude - says Russell has landed 5.3 fewer points than expected in this edition of the Six Nations.

The expected return from Russell's three conversions attempts against England on Saturday was 3.7 points.

Instead the 32-year-old, who was so influential in Scotland's dynamic first half, missed all three - including a potential last-minute match-winner - as his side lost 16-15 at Twickenham.

Russell's final kick was from a tough angle, out on the left touchline, but could potentially have been slightly easier.

Wing Duhan van der Merwe went in out wide when, despite cover from England's Tommy Freeman, it appeared he could have crossed closer to the posts to improve Russell's chances.