Ireland's men's and women's Six Nations games against Italy in Dublin on 7 and 8 March have been postponed because of coronavirus.

Irish Health Minister Simon Harris said on Tuesday the men's game should be postponed and met with the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) on Wednesday.

Eleven towns in northern Italy are in lockdown after an outbreak.

An IRFU statement said it hoped to give an update on the rescheduling of matches "in the coming days".

Ireland's men were scheduled to face Italy at the Aviva Stadium on 7 March before the women's game the following day at Energia Park.

The under-20s game between the countries on 6 March has also been postponed.

Following Harris' comments on Tuesday evening, the IRFU called for the minister to explain the "specific reasoning"' behind his words.

But an IRFU statement after Wednesday's meeting read: "At the outset we made it clear that the IRFU was supportive of the government's need to protect public health in relation to the coronavirus.

"We were then advised, formally, that the National Public Health Emergency team has determined that the series of matches should not proceed, in the interests of Public Health. The IRFU is happy to comply with this instruction.

"We will immediately begin to work with our Six Nations partners to look at the possibility of rescheduling the matches and would hope to have an update on this in the coming days."

Ireland's chief medical officer said on Wednesday the decision to call for the postponement of the match in Dublin was "not made lightly".

Ireland's Grand Slam hopes were ended by England on Sunday and they are yet to face Italy and unbeaten France in the tournament.

Italy women's game against Scotland was also postponed on Sunday and is yet to be rescheduled, while England's men's and women's teams are due to play in Italy in the final round of the Six Nations on 14 and 15 March.

Several other sports events have been cancelled because of coronavirus, with skating, table tennis and football's Serie A the latest to be affected.

In 2001, Ireland's three Six Nations fixtures against the home nations were postponed until September and October because of the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.

Analysis - 'Six Nations is in a state of limbo'

BBC rugby union correspondent Chris Jones speaking on Radio 5 Live

This all escalated last night when the Irish health minister said he was advising Irish rugby authorities the game could not go ahead.

Once the health minister said that, Irish rugby authorities were not really able to go against that.

Hopefully the games will be rearranged but it is not definitely going to happen so the Six Nations is in a state of limbo at the moment.

Ireland had to play three of their Six Nations games in 2001 in the autumn. I do not know how easy that will be to arrange these days. The calendar is so congested.

Everything is up in the air. Apart from the Ireland against Italy games, you look at England's fixtures in Italy on the final weekend.

At the time of speaking I think it looks very unlikely those games will go ahead as well.

RUTLAND, Vt. – The five-race King of Dirt Racing Crate Modified Series schedule will bring the tour to four tracks in New York and New England.

King of Dirt Racing features the wildly popular Sportsman-type dirt Modified stock car and the economical General Motors 602 crate engine package. King of Dirt events are among the highest-paying Sportsman-level races in the Northeast, and every event on the five-race slate is a highlight. The King of Dirt schedule is kept short by design, offering an affordable touring series alternative for grassroots dirt track racers.

The season opens at the fast, half-mile Devil’s Bowl Speedway in West Haven, Vt., for the fourth consecutive year, running the 50-lap Memorial Day Kickoff on Sunday night, May 24.  Bobby Hackel earned $1,750 for winning the 2019 edition, and drivers received a minimum of $150 to take the green flag.  Devil’s Bowl also hosts the second KOD event on Sunday, August 9, as the 40-lap Leon Gonyo Memorial is again held in conjunction with the“Battle at the Bowl Big Block/Small Block Modified Challenge.

The month of September will be one of the most memorable runs in King of Dirt Racing history, as a three-week stretch of major events wraps up the calendar.

The Flat Track at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, N.H., will hold its first-ever dirt Modified race on Friday, Sept. 11, during Full Throttle Dirt.  The new .25-mile dirt track will host King of Dirt for a 40-lap, $2,000-to-win race, along with USAC Midgets and the Sprint Cars of New England. Full Throttle Dirt is part of a jam-packed Full Throttle Fall Weekend featuring short-track racing action with the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, the ARCA Menards Series East, American-Canadian Tour Late Models and the Granite State Legends Cars.

The prestigious 50-lap Northeast Crate Nationals will be held at the legendary Fonda (N.Y.) Speedway on Saturday, Sept. 19, in support of the high-profile Fonda 200 Modified race.  The Nationals race has grown to become King of Dirt Racing’s signature event and will be run for the 11th time in 2020. Tim Hartman Jr. collected $2,000 for his third career Nationals win last fall.

Finally, the 2020 championship will be decided at King of Dirt’s momentous return to Albany-Saratoga Speedway in Malta, N.Y., on Friday, September 25. Albany-Saratoga has hosted more King of Dirt events than any other track, and the return to the 0.4-mile oval is a key addition for the tour.  The King of Dirt curtain-closer comes during the second annual Malta Massive Weekend, which also includes the new Street Stock Six Pack Series championship finale on Friday and the Super DIRTcar Series big-block modifieds on Saturday.

King of Dirt Racing promoter Mike Bruno expects the new schedule to fuel a competitive season with big stages for the drivers to compete on.

“We are so excited to get the King of Dirt schedule rolling in 2020,” Bruno said.  “The schedule is manageable for racers, and the races are all part of big, meaningful events.  I’m honored that KOD will be making history at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, and I’m thrilled to be back at Albany-Saratoga.  The events at Fonda and Devil’s Bowl in 2019 were outstanding, too.  I appreciate the relationships and support that we’ve built with the track promoters as an independent series, and we’re looking forward to giving the race teams a great tour.”

INDUSTRY, Calif. – Billy Janniro, the 10-time and reigning AMA Speedway National champion, led all four laps Saturday on his No. 1 GM 500cc speedway bike from the So Cal shop of Denny Scopellite in the scratch main.

About 500 spectators witnessed the first Industry Speedway event of the year. The opener was the Gumball Rally for adults preceding a Sunday afternoon Kids Gumball Rally. Saturday night riders donated all their winnings towards the cash purse shared by junior division riders Sunday.

The 39-year old speedway racing star also finished second in the feature for first division experts in a six-rider handicap feature. Janniro started 50 yards from the starting gate. Winner Tyler Warren, 24, launched from the 20-yard line and led every lap while holding off challenging Janniro. The Auburn resident has been an infrequent visitor to the Industry Hills Expo Center Grand Arena. He last raced a full season at his hometown track in 2015.

The 500cc second division main event victory went to rookie Landon Norton, 16, with three fellow Nor Cal riders following. The winner, from Citrus Heights, moved up to the 500cc expert class and Saturday was his debut ride. The talented 2018-19 California State Junior 250cc champion skipped the third division and showed why by winning his first 500cc feature in his first start.

The third division 500cc feature for new or less experienced riders was a start-to-finish ride out front by rookie Dave Perry, 25, from Camarillo. It was only his third race and first competition at Industry on his No. 127 Jawa. He raced for the first time at Perris Raceway on Jan. 11 and Feb. 1.

Also on the program were seven 1,000cc-Suzuki powered motorcycles with sidecars. Swingers in the sidecars provided counter-balance to enable drivers to negotiate four corners each lap. Perennial sidecar champion Joe Jones and his passenger Josh Flammia won their heat race and the four-lap feature. They led every lap in each race, competing in a clockwise direction as opposed to the speedway bikes that race counter-clockwise.

Saturday’s racing program had 35 races from 7:39 to 10:25 pm. One crash in event 15 (a 500cc third division semi-final) had two bikes make contact. Cody Baugh, riding in his eighth race and first event at Industry, veered into the plywood crashwall at the start of the front straight and hit hard. The 24-year old heavy equipment mechanic from Roseville tumbled to the ground. Ambulance EMTs treated him trackside for a broken collarbone. He remained on the premises to watch competition with his right arm in a sling.

RESULTS:

D-1 Scratch Main: Billy Janniro, Gino Manzares, Broc Nicol, Max Ruml (spun 360 and fell EZ on lap 1, turn one after contact with Janniro’s bike).

D-1 Scratch Consy: Blake Borello, Tommy Hedden, Russell Green. DNS-Sammy Ramirez.

D-1 Handicap Main: Tyler Warren, B. Janniro, Jake Isaac, G. Manzares, M. Ruml, B. Nicol.

D-1 Handicap Consy: Blake Borello, Brad Sauer, Sebastian Palmese, Tommy Hedden.

Sidecar Main: Joe Jones/Josh Flammia, Ace Kale/Brent Smith, Kevin Kale/Tracy Gallagher, and Dillon Osborne/Jamie Marboro.

D-2 Main: Landon Norton, Timmy Dion, Will McCloskey, Lawrence McNutt.

D-3 Main: Dave Perry, Rees Todd, Andy Dix, Tyler Moszer, Dennis Osmer, Jake Myers.

PIT NOTES

– The Gumball Rally dates back to 1983 when two fathers of junior division riders wanted a special race for only junior competitors. It has been held for many years at Industry Speedway. It was not held in 2019 because a suitable date could not be found at the busy Grand Arena, which seats 5,000 and hosts many diverse events, including rodeos, circus acts, horse and dog shows, and at times roller derby.

– Broc Nicol, from Lomita, told me he will fly back to England on Feb. 26 to resume his pro speedway racing career on the Wolverhampton Wolves team. Practice sessions begin in early March with British Speedway League racing starting shortly thereafter. He also signed with the Glasgow Tigers for part of the year.

– Four-time Speedway World Champion Greg Hancock, of Costa Mesa, recently announced his retirement at age 49 from racing following a brilliant 30-year career on the world stage. He had his sons Wilbur, 14, (250cc) and Karl (50cc pee-wees) racing at Industry Sunday.

– Dillon Ruml did not race at Industy in the Gumball Rally. He is still recuperating from a fall and shoulder injury during a recent race at Perris Raceway on Burton Road in the Inland Empire city. He and brother Max made contact, precipitating Dillon’s fall and injury.

– Billy Janniro’s entire family was present to see him race at Industry. Wife Christina, daughter Gracie, 9, and son Ricky, 23 months, enjoyed the Saturday event. Billy’s gumball machine filled with gumballs was in the hands of daughter Gracie on the podium with Billy and Ricky. Look for curly-haired Ricky to be a pee-wee division rider as soon as possible. Billy, Max Ruml and Gino Manzares were all present Sunday to help junior division riders, the next generation stars. Gino was helping his son Ryder, 7, start his 50cc pee-wee racing.

– Newcomers to Industry Speedway Saturday were plentiful in each division for the initial event. It was a chilly (for So Cal) mid-50s night with a light rain shower briefly about 8 p.m. That did not affect the indoor event in the modern arena overlooking the East San Gabriel Valley.

– With seven sidecar teams in action, three entrants locked into the four-sidecar feature early. Four teams had to race in a Last Chance race. No. 28 led every lap with driver Lawrence McNutt and swinger Sammy Tetrault aboard. The new No. 77 team of Kenny Greco/Mike North finished second, with No. 07 (Kevin Kale/Tracy Gallagher) third and No. 11 Kevin Holman/Weston Farnworth fourth. However, the winner was disqualified after the swinger fell out (without injury) before the checkered flag. The runner-up also was disqualified after the right side wheel went into the infield inside the piping. The unusual double DQ resulted in Kevin Kale joining his father’s No. 357 in the feature.

– Ace told me he currently also owns five TQ Midgets — all have seven in the car numbers. Ace and son, Kevin, drive two of the TQs in the NMRA-TQ Series. They will race at Ventura Raceway five times from March 14 to Oct. 3, four times at Bakersfield Speedway (March 21 to Sept. 5), and twice at Santa Maria Raceway (Aug. 1 and Aug. 15).

DETROIT, Mich. – One of racing’s true pioneers will compete this summer at the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear and she will appear in Detroit this weekend at one of the Motor City’s annual automotive celebrations.

Lyn St. James, recognized as one of the top 100 female athletes of the century by Sports Illustrated, will race in the Historic Trans-Am Series events during Grand Prix weekend on Belle Isle. The former IndyCar Series driver will race the classic 1969 University of Pittsburgh Chevrolet Camaro in the Historic Trans-Am Series event at Belle Isle. The series, which features the original cars that raced in the golden era of Trans-Am competition in the late 1960s and early 70s, will host races on both Saturday and Sunday during the Grand Prix race weekend.

St. James will appear in the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear display this weekend at Autorama inside the TCF Center in downtown Detroit. St. James will meet with fans and sign autographs in the display alongside the historic Camaro that she will race on the Belle Isle street circuit. The iconic Camaro was built and operated by the student-run race team at the University of Pittsburgh and was modeled after the 1969 Camaro driven by Team Penske’s Mark Donohue, who won the Trans-Am Series manufacturer’s title for Chevrolet that season. The 2020 Grand Prix IndyCar will also be featured in the display at Autorama throughout the weekend.

“I am so excited to be racing in Detroit this summer at the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear,” said St. James. “I’ve always loved the racing fans in the Motor City and I’m looking forward to seeing everyone at Autorama this weekend. The Historic Trans-Am Series is going to be a great addition to the racing lineup on Belle Isle this summer and I can’t wait to get behind the wheel of the University of Pittsburgh Camaro and put on a good show for the fans in Detroit.”

St. James became the first woman to win Rookie of the Year honors at the Indianapolis 500 in 1992 when she also broke the barrier as the first woman to race at over 200 mph on track. She is one of nine women to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 and she competed in the legendary race seven times. Over the course of her career, St. James also earned numerous IMSA sports car victories, including wins in two of the world’s most prestigious endurance races – the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring. St. James has also competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and she produced 21 international and national closed-course speed records over a 20-year period.

In addition to the two Historic Trans-Am Series races on the Belle Isle street circuit, the Grand Prix will once again host the only doubleheader weekend on the NTT IndyCar Series schedule – the Chevrolet Dual in Detroit – along with the exotic sports cars of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic. The Trans-Am Series presented by Pirelli will also race twice during the Grand Prix weekend as fans will witness seven races from four different series competing on Belle Isle.

Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Jake Muzzin is expected to miss approximately four weeks after suffering a broken right hand during Tuesday's game, according to the team.

Muzzin, 31, was injured when he took a puck off his hand late in the second period and did not play in the third of the 4-3 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Prior to the injury, Muzzin scored a goal in the first period to extend a six-game scoring streak. He has six goals and 17 assists in 53 games this season.

On Monday, the Maple Leafs signed Muzzin to a four-year contract extension with an average annual value of $5.625 million.

Toronto is currently in third place in the Atlantic Division, two points ahead of the Florida Panthers.

Defenseman Calle Rosen was recalled from AHL Toronto. He was traded to the Maple Leafs on Monday from the Colorado Avalanche for goaltender Michael Hutchinson.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – Follow the money?

That won’t be the motivating factor if Brooks Koepka is tempted to break from the PGA Tour to join the Premier Golf League.

“I am just going to play where the best players play,” Koepka said Wednesday after his Honda Classic pro-am round. “I want to play against the best. I think everyone wants to play against the best. Whatever comes of it, comes of it.”

After his pretournament news conference, Koepka was asked on the side if the huge amount of money being offered by the PGL could sway him.

“I can’t speak for everybody, but for me, money doesn’t matter,” he said. “It’s not something that’s important.

“I just want to be happy. Money is not going to make me happy. I just want to play against the best, and at the same time, I just want to play golf.”

Koepka said he doesn’t take what the PGA Tour has done for him for granted.

“A lot of good things have come from it,” he said. “The Tour has been incredible to us, the way things have developed over the years. We have to see where things go. It’s all very new and it’s all very fast.”

But what if the PGL makes him an astronomical offer to be one of its new team owners?

“I know you’re going to write this the wrong way, but it doesn’t matter if somebody gave me $200 million tomorrow,” Koepka said. “It’s not going to change my life. What am I going to get out of it? I already have so much that I could retire right now, but I don’t want to. I just want to play golf. It’s not going to change anything. Maybe the only thing I do is buy a plane. That would be it. I don’t see anything that would change my life.”

Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski is set to miss his side's Champions League round-of-16 second leg against Chelsea after sustaining a knee injury in the first leg.

Lewandowski rounded out the scoring as Bayern thumped Chelsea 3-0 at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday, but the Poland international is unlikely to feature when the teams meet again on March 18, with Bayern taking to Twitter to say he will miss up to four weeks of action as a result of the injury.

Lewandowski tapped in a cross from Alphonso Davies on Tuesday after former Arsenal winger Serge Gnabry netted a brace to leave Chelsea with an extremely difficult second leg.

Lewandowski will likely miss Bundesliga clashes with Hoffenheim, Schalke, Augsburg and Union Berlin before the home fixture against Chelsea, with the league match against Eintracht Frankfurt taking place around his expected return date.

The striker is the leading scorer in the Bundesliga this season with 25 goals. Bayern are top of the table on 49 points, one ahead of RB Leipzig and four ahead of third-placed Borussia Dortmund.

The marker for the prematch atmosphere ahead of Real Madrid hosting Manchester City on Wednesday at the Santiago Bernabeu was set last week. When Atletico Madrid's fans mobbed their team ahead of Liverpool's visit to the Wanda Metropolitano, spewing out love and desire for victory amid a vast cloud of red smoke from many dozens of incandescent flares, you can bet that Madrid's fans were taking note and promising: "We'll do it better next week!"

Ordinarily, the atmosphere before Los Blancos play at their ancestral home is genteel. The Bernabeu is in a well-to-do area of Spain's capital; the bars, cafes and restaurants are quite posh and the stadium becomes temporary home to an amazing mix of families, often three generations watching together, well-heeled, cigar-smoking fans, many thousands of tourists ... and Madrid's ultras.

But then along comes an important night-time match, like this. Particularly one in which the opposition is coached by someone the Bernabeu both fears and loathes: Pep Guardiola.

When the corporate-emblazoned coach carrying Zinedine Zidane & Co. heads along the Avenida Concha de Espina -- which borders the stadium's southern side -- toward the player entrance on Calle Padre Damian, it'll be at walking pace. Massed around them will be thousands of rabid, noisy, loyal, flare-wielding fans exhorting not just victory against upstart City but demanding undying, lung-busting effort from every last man onboard the vehicle. It's non-negotiable.

More, much more, than the stadium atmosphere, these magical, crazed, inspirational moments in any player's career can inject a core of adrenaline and steely determination that might just, on a given night, tip the balance from competitor to winner.

Inside Los Blancos' citadel, I hope the cacophony of noise -- a mixture of defiance and demand -- reaches the level of the night most seared on my mind: Tuesday, April 8, 2003, when Madrid tore Manchester United apart and won 3-1. Everyone seemed to temporarily lose their minds, or at least all inhibitions, that night -- kids, tourists, old men and women, everyone jumped up and down all night, the roaring and the bouncing literally seeming to make the Bernabeu rock to its foundations. It was truly amazing.

The stadium itself is undergoing reconstruction and modernisation right now. Certain areas are already restricted; development on this magnificent beast of an arena is well underway but huge tranches of work remain before the vast exterior of Madrid's stadium is transformed into what will look like a giant Wi-Fi router and the inside is fully covered by a roof.

It's a work in progress, metaphorically perfect for Madrid as a team. They, too, have grand designs on the future, but some wires are exposed, the foundations aren't fully laid and there are inspections to do.

When Zidane was training to be a coach, he was quite certain whom he had to visit -- and from whom he should learn. It was Guardiola, then coach at Bayern Munich.

The Frenchman called his Catalan counterpart "an inspiration" and led a delegation of French Football Federation coaches to go study at Bayern's Sabener Strasse training centre. There he got to know properly, for the first time, a guy who'd dedicated an entire chapter of his 2001 autobiography to his reverence for Zidane the player. That study visit happened in March 2015. Guardiola wasn't to win the Champions League while working in Bavaria, beaten in three semifinals and always by Spanish teams.

But 15 short months later, Zidane had won the Champions League as coach of Madrid. Then he retained that trophy for two consecutive years. The guy who was an apprentice at Sabener Strasse only five short years ago is now the only man to win three straight Champions Leagues and, if you count his medal as assistant to Carlo Ancelotti in 2014, he's actually coached his way to this trophy twice as many times as Guardiola.

City come into this test bristling with focus and motivation. Their dream of a hat trick of Premier League titles has been obliterated by the footballing Terminators from Liverpool and now UEFA have handed them a two-year ban from this competition. Talk about incentive to win.

Madrid, on the other hand, have become suddenly vulnerable. Humiliated at home in the Copa del Rey, league leadership lost in the space of eight days thanks to five dropped points in two matches and neither sufficiently sharp up front nor as miserly at the back as has been the case for weeks.

Right now, Zidane isn't brutally debilitated by injuries, but Eden Hazard was to be the locksmith who unpicked Fort Knox defences. The Belgian's horrible ankle injury means that subtlety is no longer an option -- Madrid will have to dynamite their way to fame and fortune.

Madrid's best available 11 is: Thibaut Courtois; Dani Carvajal, Raphael Varane, Sergio Ramos, Ferland Mendy; Luka Modric, Casemiro, Federico Valverde, Toni Kroos; Karim Benzema and Vinicius Jr. No question. Their most adventurous XI would be the same back five plus Kroos, Casemiro and Valverde, with Vinicius and Benzema plus either Gareth Bale or Isco in a 4-3-3 formation.

And Isco has skin in this game. When Zidane reprimanded Florentino Perez, as Madrid's director of football rather than their coach, and pretty much ordered Madrid's president to sign Isco, City had the midfielder's flight plan, welcome party and kit sizes all planned. Manuel Pellegrini was the coach, City were convinced that they were going to profit from Malaga's fire sale, but Zidane's huge regard for the Andalusian magician nipped that in the bud.

Almost 300 matches, 15 trophies and regular smatterings of magic on pitches around Europe later, Isco has repaid that faith. But whenever his place at the club has been in jeopardy and Perez has tried to cash in on him, Guardiola has made it crystal clear that City are no longer interested. Isco dwells on the ball too long, twists and turns habitually rather than Guardiola's pass-move-pass-move-score tempo. Is that enough to persuade Zidane that Isco should start instead of Modric or Bale with a mission to stick it to City and their Catalan coach?

As for Guardiola, what does it mean to take another side to the Bernabeu? It's a place that, in his early years, held nothing but disappointment and footballing horror for him. By the time he was 20, and a fixture in Barcelona's midfield, he'd only seen the Blaugrana win the title twice in his lifetime -- Madrid 11 times. During those two barren decades at the start of his life, Barca won just four times at the Bernabeu.

Guardiola's own debut at Real Madrid's palatial stadium was in October 1991, and that 1-1 draw sported many faces associated with this tie 29 years later. Madrid's match delegate, Chendo, was full-back that day. Los Blancos' head of institutional relations, Emilio Butragueno, was up front for Raddy Antic's team. Luis Enrique, the Spain manager who'll be in the main stand, was on Madrid's bench. Barcelona's winger that night, Txiki Begiristain, is City's director of football.

Guardiola and Zidane have perennially followed different paths.

As footballers, the Catalan was the ultimate system player, Zidane the swashbuckling individual. They never played against each other in a Clasico, the former leaving Spain pretty much as Zidane finally followed Guardiola's perpetual advice that he needed to play in La Liga. Once, for their clubs, they faced off at the Bernabeu, but Guardiola was in the red and gold of AS Roma. For 24 minutes, after he came on at half-time and before Madrid's No. 5 was rested in the 70th minute of a 3-0 thrashing imposed on Fabio Capello's Serie A side, the Catalan tried to put the clamps on this French footballing phenomenon he admires so much.

As coaches, their trajectories are divergent, too.

Guardiola, again, the man with a plan: systematic, Johan Cruyff football where nothing is ever more important than possessing the ball, using it strategically and then imposing superiority. Zidane is not a tactic-free zone, but he's someone for whom the ability to inspire men in training, to consistently draw out their best -- because he's been there and knows how they tick -- how to make them render their maximum, has become his trademark.

Which school will win here? Is it influential that, for City, this tie is everything and they're up against rivals who are a work in progress? All or nothing versus all over the place?

Can Madrid cast aside their sudden vulnerability and impose themselves, even 1-0 like the last time Guardiola took his team (Bayern) to this totemic European stadium in April 2014?

Please, promise me that you'll be watching for Part I of this magnificent contest that has so very much riding on it. Not to mention two majestic men of modern football jousting against each other for the first time as coaches.

Ireland head coach Graham Ford will miss his side's upcoming T20I series against Afghanistan in India after a "slip accident" at his home in Dublin led to a fractured vertebrae and three broken ribs.

Ford had to travel home from the Ireland Wolves (the 'A' side) tour of South Africa last week, after a Durban doctor told him he would be unable to participate in physical training with the squad.

Rob Cassell, who will leave the coaching staff to take up a bowling coach position with Rajasthan Royals immediately after the tour, will be acting head coach for the series, while another coach will be added to the staff in the interim.

Cricket Ireland also confirmed that it will "continue to monitor the situation" with regards to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. The board said it was "concurrently taking advice from government, health and sporting bodies," and that "while a duty of care approach to players' health will be maintained, there is currently no advisory against travelling to northern India".

The series starts on March 6, with all three games being played in Greater Noida.

South Africa won the toss and chose to bowl first vs Australia

South Africa will chase in the deciding T20 against Australia in a bid to win a first series since March 2019 without a specialist opener.

Temba Bavuma has not recovered from the hamstring injury that has kept him out of this series so far and Reeza Hendricks, who was called up and played in Port Elizabeth has been benched, leaving Rassie van der Dussen to step up to partner Quinton de Kock at the top.

That has opened up a middle-order spot for Heinrich Klaasen, whose hip injury is no longer a concern, but did not create room for spinning allrounder Jon-Jon Smuts, despite conditions.

A week of hot, dry weather and a surface riddled with cracks should suit slower bowling but South Africa went in with Tabraiz Shamsi as their only spinner. Andile Phehlukwayo, the allrounder who specialises in slower balls at the death, was also left out with Dwaine Pretorius keeping his spot.

Australia have given themselves more options with an unchanged XI that includes Ashton Agar and Adam Zampa. The same XI won at the Wanderers and lost in Port Elizabeth which means D'Arcy Short, Sean Abbott and Jhye Richardson have not played at all in this series.

Although Australia have had a warm reception in their two matches so far, Newlands will be the litmus test for whether all is forgiven from two years ago. This was the scene of sandpapergate, where Cameron Bancroft was caught on camera trying to alter the condition of the match ball and where Steve Smith and later David Warner admitted their part in the incident. At the time of writing, the ground was just over half full but a bigger crowd is expected in the evening.

South Africa: 1 Quinton de Kock (capt, wk), 2 Rassie van der Dussen, 3 Faf du Plessis, 4 Heinrich Klaasen, 5 David Miller, 6 Pite van Biljon, 7 Dwaine Pretorius, 8 Kagiso Rabada, 9 Anrich Nortje, 10 Tabraiz Shamsi, 11 Lungi Ngidi

Australia: 1 David Warner, 2 Aaron Finch (capt), 3 Steven Smith, 4 Matthew Wade, 5 Mitchell Marsh, 6 Alex Carey (wk), 7 Ashton Agar, 8 Pat Cummins, 9 Mitchell Starc, 10 Adam Zampa, 11 Kane Richardson