The Los Angeles Dodgers acquired speedy outfielder Esteury Ruiz from the Athletics in exchange for minor league right-hander Carlos Duran on Wednesday.

Ruiz, a 26-year-old right-handed hitter who was designated for assignment by the A's three days earlier, will be optioned to the Dodgers' Triple-A affiliate. If called up, he can provide speed off the bench and fill in at both center field and second base.

In his first full season in 2023, Ruiz led the American League with 67 stolen bases and provided solid defense in center field, contributing three outs above average. His slash line, however, was just .254/.309/.345 with five home runs in 132 games.

The 2024 season was a struggle for Ruiz. An injury to his left wrist forced him out for close to seven weeks. After about a week of action, he was shut down again due to lingering discomfort. And then, near the end of September, he underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right knee. All told, Ruiz posted a .652 OPS in 29 major league games and a .994 OPS in 16 minor league games.

The emergence of Lawrence Butler and JJ Bleday severely limited Ruiz's role with the A's, and he was taken off the 40-man roster after lefty Angel Perdomo was claimed off waivers from the Los Angeles Angels on Sunday.

Duran, a 23-year-old right-hander who's listed at 6-foot-7, made 19 starts across three levels in the Dodgers' system last year, combining for a 4.73 ERA with 73 strikeouts and 32 walks across 53 innings.

The Dodgers transferred pitcher Kyle Hurt to the 60-day injured list to make room for Ruiz on the 40-man roster.

Rookie second baseman Kristian Campbell and the Boston Red Sox agreed to an eight-year extension Wednesday, marking the earliest in a career the Red Sox have ever locked up a player to a multiyear deal.

The extension is worth $60 million, sources told ESPN.

Barely a week into Campbell's time in the big leagues, the Red Sox showed even more faith in Campbell than they had by breaking camp with him. The deal, which will go through the 2034 season, includes two club options, sources told ESPN.

Campbell, 22, was the consensus minor league player of the year in 2024 after a star-making performance that came out of nowhere. With an unorthodox-looking right-handed swing, Campbell hit .330/.439/.558 with 20 home runs and 77 RBIs while jumping from High-A to Triple-A.

Boston officials entered camp hopeful Campbell would earn the second-base job, and despite the possibility of big-dollar free agent signing Alex Bregman occupying it. Bregman remained at third base, with Rafael Devers switching to designated hitter to accommodate Campbell's arrival.

The Red Sox's continued spending -- they locked up ace Garrett Crochet to a six-year, $170 million deal earlier this week -- enriches a long-term core that includes Devers signed until 2033, super-utility man Ceddanne Rafaela through 2031, Crochet and right-hander Brayan Bello through 2030 and the forthcoming arrival of Campbell's running mates in Boston's big three prospects, outfielder Roman Anthony and shortstop Marcelo Mayer.

Boston's desire to lock in players to early-career deals in hope of maximizing their performance is no secret. And Campbell's first week with the Red Sox only serves as validation: He's hitting .375/.500/.688 with a long home run to left-center field.

Campbell's burgeoning power helped launch him toward the top of prospect lists this winter. After hitting .376/.484/.549 in his lone season at Georgia Tech, Campbell went to the Red Sox in the fourth round with the compensation pick they received for losing Xander Bogaerts to San Diego in free agency. Boston coaches helped rebuild Campbell's swing and saw immediate results, more than doubling his homer-per-game output from college.

At 6-foot-3 and 210 pounds, Campbell will be the solution for a second-base position held down for more than a decade by Dustin Pedroia. Since his retirement following the 2017 season, the Red Sox have been led in games played at second by six different players in seven years.

Britain's Fran Jones was helped off court in a wheelchair after collapsing during a match in Colombia.

Jones was attempting to serve in the ninth game of a deciding third set in Bogota when she fell to the floor.

The 24-year-old initially lay on her back before rolling on to her side as she was attended to by medical staff.

Opponent Julia Riera walked over to check on Jones and helped lift her on to a wheelchair.

Jones, the British number five, was unable to finish the first-round match in the Colsanitas Cup, a WTA 250 tournament.

"Due to a physical issue, Francesca Jones has withdrawn from her match against Julia Riera at 6-2 5-7 5-3 in favour of the Argentinian," read a Colsanitas Cup statement.

"We wish the British tennis player a speedy recovery."

Jones beat Riera in straight sets last week on her way to winning the W75 Vacaria in Brazil, the eighth ITF title of her career.

Meanwhile, Heather Watson is out of the Charleston Open after a straight-set defeat by Iryna Shymanovich in the first round.

The British number seven was beaten 7-6 (10-8) 6-4 by the Belarusian world number 215.

Match official Tom Foley is to leave his role at the Rugby Football Union after 15 years' refereeing to "pursue new opportunities".

Foley, from Bath, began his career officiating in the National League and has been a referee in Premiership rugby since 2014, working on more than 250 matches.

He stepped down from international rugby in November 2023 after receiving a "torrent of criticism and abuse" working at the Rugby World Cup final as the television match official.

His career has seen him officiate in four Premiership finals as well as four Champions Cup finals in 2018, 2021, 2022 and 2023.

Foley's first international match was in 2011 and he officiated in 48 Tests in total before retiring after the South Africa v New Zealand World Cup final in October 2023.

The game saw All Blacks captain Sam Cane's yellow card upgraded to a red card following a TMO 'bunker' review.

At the time Foley said: "The pressure and scrutiny I came under after the Rugby World Cup final, along with a torrent of criticism and abuse online, has helped to reaffirm that this is the right decision for me at this point in my life.

"While it's a privilege to be at the heart of some of the sport's most iconic moments, the increasing levels of vitriol, when the demands and expectation are so high, have led me to this moment."

Gloucester's attack has been transformed this season under Lightfoot Brown, who joined the club in 2023. A scintillating victory against Bristol on Saturday saw them move back into the Premiership top four.

Williams tops the Premiership stats, provided by Oval Insights, for the most passes in the league this season (762), while he is second overall for most metres kicked (3,858), and third for most line breaks (20) and most offloads (18).

Against the Bears he provided two try assists including a moment of brilliant skill to jump and collect a ball one-handed, before a no-look pass to Seb Atkinson to score.

"[He's] a very committed individual. He'll be the last one out here practicing his kicking, practicing the bits you see at the weekend," Lightfoot Brown said.

"You bring a world-class player into your environment and I think you're going to reap the benefits of that, everyone is.

"Young players, players in the same position, they're all improving without question."

Interim Ireland head coach Paul O'Connell will have Denis Leamy, Mike Prendergast and Colm Tucker as his coaching team for this summer's Tests in Georgia and Portugal.

O'Connell was confirmed as interim boss last week, with Andy Farrell and Simon Easterby away with the Lions.

Former Ireland back row Leamy has been Munster defence coach since 2022, while Prendergast has been the province's attack coach for the past three seasons and led Ireland 'A' in February's defeat by England.

Tucker is Connacht's scrum coach and also led the team during last weekend's United Rugby Championship loss to Munster in Castlebar, with head coach Pete Wilkins on sick leave.

All three coaches will link up with Ireland at the end of the club season. The squad is due to be announced in mid-June.

Ireland face Georgia in Tbilisi on 5 July (18:00 BST) and Portugal in Lisbon on 12 July (time TBC).

Former Ireland and British and Irish Lions captain O'Connell took over as interim boss after Easterby was appointed as part of Lions head coach Farrell's backroom team.

Ireland scrum coach John Fogarty and attack coach Andrew Goodman are also on Farrell's Lions ticket.

O'Connell said he was "honoured" to accept the position.

"With a busy schedule of international rugby this summer, these two Tests will provide us with further opportunities to assess and develop the competition levels within the squad," added O'Connell.

"I am excited to work with a coaching team who I know well individually and are hugely motivated to deliver success to Ireland and look forward to putting our plans in place over the coming weeks."

Irish Rugby Football Union performance director David Humphreys says it will mark an "important step" in O'Connell's coaching career.

"He will be assisted by Denis, Mike and Cullie who have all been in Ireland camp at different points over the last number of months and their selections is another positive progression in their coaching careers and reasserts the IRFU's commitment to developing a pathway for Irish coaches," added Humphreys.

There is a "high degree of uncertainty" over how much of the hundreds of millions of pounds lent to sports bodies during the Covid pandemic will be repaid, says an influential group of MPs.

In a report, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) criticises "severe weaknesses" in the way the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) handled the loans, and that it has been "overly optimistic" about repayments.

Between 2020 and 2022, the DCMS gave 474m to bodies in the sport and culture sectors to help them to survive lockdown, 218m was to sporting bodies with 124m supporting Premiership rugby union clubs.

But the cross-party PAC, which assesses value for taxpayers' money, says 400m is yet to be paid back, and less than half of borrowers had started repayments.

Nine bodies, which had collectively received 46m, have become insolvent.

That includes three rugby clubs - London Irish, Wasps and Worcester - with the DCMS saying it does not expect to recover up to 29m of the 41m it lent to them.

Amid concerns over the finances of the remaining top-flight teams, the MPs say that "future repayment is put at risk by the department's need to maintain the financial viability of the sectors to which it has given loans".

The PAC warned of a "gap in accountability to parliament" over the money lent to rugby union, due to "a conflict of interest" involving a senior civil servant's connections with the sport.

PAC chair Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP said it was "right that government came forward with necessary support [but] not to provide a lifetime guarantee to institutions like rugby union which may be experiencing financial difficulties five years later".

"DCMS is inherently conflicted in the management of its Covid loan-book," he said. "As a lender, its priority will be to secure best value for the taxpayer from these loans. As a department, its priority is to do everything in its power to support a sector which has become its debtor."

In a statement, the DCMS said: "This government will always protect taxpayers' money and we are committed to recovering funds paid out under the previous administration. We have recovered 97% of repayments due and we are set to see all borrowers begin their repayments by later this year.

"Ministers and the department continue to actively engage with the chief executives of the Rugby Football Union, Premiership Rugby and Championship Rugby to support the ongoing sustainability of the sport.

"We will take time to consider the full contents of the report and will respond in due course."