Gloucester head coach Johan Ackermann hopes Danny Cipriani's England chances will not be judged on one game.

Premiership player of the year Cipriani struggled to make an impression as his Gloucester side were well beaten by Saracens in their play-off semi-final.

England head coach Eddie Jones was among those watching as the fly-half finished on the losing side.

"If we'd played better, we probably could have helped Danny, but we made some silly errors," said Ackermann.

Cipriani, 31, has been pivotal in helping the Cherry and Whites to a top-four finish in his first campaign with the club, leading to calls for him to break into England's World Cup squad.

But he could not add to his season tally of 14 assists and three tries on an afternoon when, despite taking an early lead, defending champions Saracens were too good.

"It will be tough if Danny's judged on the one game," added Ackermann. "You have to look at the whole season.

"He can make a difference. It's the way you want to play and it is a tough choice for Eddie (Jones).

"I do believe that Danny can do it. Danny can come off the bench and make a huge difference."

Cipriani's last England appearance came against South Africa in Cape Town last June as he started at fly-half alongside Owen Farrell at inside centre.

An England XV are due to face Barbarians at Twickenham next Sunday in a non-cap international, with the squad being announced on Monday.

CONCORD, N.C. – After a blistering start to Saturday’s Alsco 300, a shredded tire at the end of the second stage ruined polesitter Christopher Bell’s afternoon at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Bell, who qualified first and cruised to the opening stage win, had a right-front tire fail on his No. 20 Rheem Toyota Supra with two laps to go in the second stage, sending him hard into the outside wall.

The Norman, Okla., young gun tried to stay on track in an effort to remain on the lead lap, but his flat tire shredded coming to the green-and-white checkered flag signaling the stage break, ripping the right side of his car to ribbons and leading to a small fire in the right-front wheel well of his machine.

Bell climbed from his car quickly after limping it to pit road, his day done after just 90 of 200 laps. He was officially credited with the 31st finishing position.

“I’m honestly not sure what happened,” Bell said after being checked and released from the infield care center. “The balance was really good on our car for the first part of the race there. I had no warning of blowing the right front; I was actually a little bit loose that entire run.

“I guess we ran something over, because I piledrove the fence … and then going down the back straightaway, I saw my teammate do it there,” he added. “I hate our day is over, but we had a really fast car.”

Bell was looking for his series-leading fourth win of the season, as well as his first NASCAR Xfinity Series win at Charlotte’s 1.5-mile quad-oval. Instead, the young star walked away dejected after a heartbreaker that he felt could have easily been a victory.

“We had the car, man,” Bell noted. “It’s a real bummer.”

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship fans searching for connections to Sunday’s 103rd Indianapolis 500 won’t have to look far.

Two-thirds of the drivers in the 33-car field have at least one start in IMSA’s top series. That includes the WeatherTech Championship or its predecessors, the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series and the American Le Mans Series. Ten of these 22 drivers have made at least one WeatherTech Championship start in 2019.

WeatherTech Championship full-timer Helio Castroneves, who shares the No. 7 Acura Team Penske ARX-05 DPi with Ricky Taylor, is second in the 2019 WeatherTech Championship DPi point standings. He will be pursuing his fourth Indy 500 victory – which would tie him with A.J. Foyt, Al Unser and Rick Mears for the most all-time.

“I’m just very fortunate to have a phenomenal team, to be able to give me the opportunity to go back, and I see all the fans really looking forward to being part of history,” Castroneves said. “I won’t give up until I make that dream come true.”

The weekend after Indy, Castroneves will reunite with Taylor for the 100-minute Chevrolet Sports Car Classic at Detroit’s Belle Isle Park.

The Team Penske lineup for Sunday also includes polesitter Simon Pagenaud, the third driver in the No. 6 Acura Team Penske machine for IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup races at Daytona, Sebring and Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta alongside full-time drivers Dane Cameron and two-time Indy 500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya. Pagenaud was the 2010 ALMS LMP champion and is a 10-time IMSA race winner.

Castroneves and Taylor’s endurance teammate, Alexander Rossi, meanwhile, will be going for his second Indy 500 victory in the No. 27 Andretti Autosport Honda after winning in 2016.

Sebastien Bourdais is a second WeatherTech Championship full-timer of sorts in the field. The Frenchman has competed in all four GT Le Mans races thus far in 2019 in the No. 66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT alongside co-driver Dirk Werner. Bourdais is usually the No. 66 team’s third driver for the Michelin Endurance Cup events at Daytona, Sebring and Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

But an illness sidelined regular driver Joey Hand for the last two races, prompting the team to call in Bourdais as a substitute. Bourdais placed the No. 66 Ford GT on the class pole position at Mid-Ohio and is currently fifth in GTLM points, although his full-time status is expected to end with Hand ready to return.

Bourdais’ actual full-time gig is driving the No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan Honda IndyCar. The team whose co-owners, Jimmy Vasser and James Sullivan, also field the pair of Lexus RC F GT3 machines in the WeatherTech Championship under the AIM Vasser Sullivan banner and won in the GT Daytona class at Mid-Ohio earlier this month for the team’s first win.

The Ganassi team, meanwhile, fields a pair of Indy 500 entries, including the No. 9 Honda for Scott Dixon, the 2008 Indy 500 winner and a three-time Rolex 24 At Daytona winner. Dixon is the endurance driver for the No. 67 Ford GT alongside Ryan Briscoe and Richard Westbrook.

Dixon and Bourdais – who won the Rolex 24 overall in 2014 and the GTLM class in 2017 – are two of six Rolex 24 winners in the 2019 Indianapolis 500 field.

Colton Herta, who became the youngest winner in IndyCar history earlier this year, won his first Rolex 24 in January. He co-drove the No. 25 BMW Team RLL M8 GTE to the GTLM class victory alongside Connor de Phillippi, Philipp Eng and Augusto Farfus. The others are Tony Kanaan (2015), Graham Rahal (2011) and Charlie Kimball (2013) who each claimed an overall Rolex 24 victory with Chip Ganassi Racing.

The Indy field also includes three previous winners of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts. Bourdais is a two-time winner (2006 and 2015), Kanaan won in 2007 and Ryan Hunter-Reay took an LMP2 class win at Sebring in 2011.

Hunter-Reay – the 2014 Indy 500 winner – also won the 2018 Motul Petit Le Mans season finale alongside Jordan Taylor and Renger van der Zande in the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R. Earlier this month he co-drove the No. 55 Mazda DPi with Jonathan Bomarito to a third-place result at Mid-Ohio standing in for Harry Tincknell.

Perhaps the biggest story of Sunday’s final round of qualifications at Indianapolis also has strong 2019 IMSA ties. Kyle Kaiser, who has made three 2019 WeatherTech Championship starts in the No. 50 Juncos Racing Cadillac DPi, dramatically bumped his way into the field in the No. 32 Juncos Chevrolet as the final qualifier in the Last Row Shootout.

He bumped Fernando Alonso, who started 2019 with a Rolex 24 At Daytona victory in the No. 10 Cadillac DPi alongside Jordan Taylor, van der Zande and Kamui Kobayashi.

The Indy 500 field includes a total of eight teams with owners who also field entries in the WeatherTech Championship: Penske, Scuderia Corsa, Vasser-Sullivan, Andretti Herta with Marco & Curb Agajanian, Rahal Letterman Lanigan, Ganassi, Meyer Shank Racing and Juncos.

When Sam Bass passed away earlier this year, many wondered if the tradition of painting guitars for victory lane at NASCAR events would continue. Thanks to Greg Stumpff and Off Axis Paint, the tradition won’t be ending anytime soon

CONCORD, N.C. – On a scorching Saturday afternoon that saw many of the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ top contenders wither, Tyler Reddick withstood the heat to win the Alsco 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Reddick dominated the event after taking the point for the first time on a lap-72 restart, pacing 110 of the 200 laps en route to his second Xfinity Series win of the season and the fifth of his career.

The defending series champion won the second stage handily, and then only gave up the top spot briefly due to various pit strategies and cycles the rest of the way.

Though he restarted outside the top seven after pitting for the final time with 42 to go, Reddick charged through traffic quickly on four fresh tires. He advanced to third in just three laps, and then regained full command with 35 laps left with a diving turn-three pass of John Hunter Nemechek.

A brief interruption following a restart with 23 to go, when Brandon Jones didn’t push Reddick on a restart and allowed Cole Custer to shoot out to the race lead, didn’t faze Reddick at all.

He patiently bided his time until the race’s 10th and final caution flew for a spinning Josh Williams with 20 to go, then powered away from the field on the race-deciding restart with 15 circuits remaining when Custer spun his tires and couldn’t get up to speed.

From there, Reddick drove off to a 2.102-second victory over Justin Allgaier at the checkered flag.

“Hats off to all of Richard Childress Racing,” Reddick said in victory lane. “We were pretty good going into the two off weeks, but we weren’t really happy with where we were and they worked really hard and worked on a couple of things. We’ve been really good since we’ve been back to Charlotte. I’m just so pumped by all the work ethic by all the guys back at the shop.

“The guys here with me today … they just worked their tails off on our Tame the Beast Chevrolet, and to hold off Justin Allgaier – who is very hard to beat – to win at Charlotte is a big deal for us.”

Allgaier looked as though he might have something for Reddick down the stretch, staying with the No. 2 Chevrolet for a couple of laps following the final restart, but couldn’t mount a challenge in the end.

“My biggest issue at the end was (turns) one and two,” noted Allgaier. “We were really good on the other end, in turns three and four, on the bottom … because he was giving up a lot of time on the bottom, but he could roll so much speed on the top and my car was too tight. I hit the fence early, trying to push it, but we could just never get the balance where I wanted it.

“It’s disappointing to finish second, but at the end of the day, Tyler had the best car. Hats off to him.”

Jeffrey Earnhardt rallied from a spin with 60 to go to post a NASCAR career-best third-place finish for Joe Gibbs Racing. Series rookies Noah Gragson and Justin Haley completed the top five.

Michael Annett finished sixth, ahead of Jeb Burton, Ryan Sieg, Austin Cindric and Brandon Jones.

Christopher Bell won the first stage from the pole, but shredded a tire coming to the finish of the second stage and retired from the race due to the extensive damage to his Toyota. Bell was credited with 31st.

Leaving Charlotte, Reddick holds the regular-season points lead over Bell by 65 markers.

MONTREAL -- The Montreal Canadiens have agreed to a three-year contract with defenseman Brett Kulak.

The deal was announced Saturday and runs through the 2021-22 season, carrying an average annual value of $1.85 million.

The 25-year-old Kulak appeared in 57 games for the Canadiens last season and set career highs in goals (six), assists (11) and points (17).

He was acquired from the Calgary Flames last October for defensemen Matt Taormina and Rinat Valiev.

Bayern Munich secured a domestic double after beating RB Leipzig 3-0 in the DFB Pokal final at the Olympiastadion in Berlin on Saturday.

Robert Lewandowski put the Bundesliga champions in front just before the half-hour mark with a difficult header from a David Alaba cross to give Bayern the lead at half-time.

Manuel Neuer kept Bayern in front with his second big stop of the match, denying Emil Forsberg with a kick save after the RB Leipzig winger had broken free on goal.

Bayern doubled their lead in the 78th minute when Kingsley Coman took a neat first touch on a loose ball in the Leipzig penalty area to set up a left-footed shot that he blasted past Peter Gulacsi.

Lewandowski sealed Bayern's 19th German Cup soon after, outrunning his defender to a through ball and chipping Gulacsi to make it 3-0 with his 40th goal in all competitions this season.

"It was the toughest opponent we could have had and we saw that in the opening 30 minutes," said Bayern boss Niko Kovac, whose future at the club looks more secure after winning two titles in the past week.

"Manuel Neuer kept us in the game with two superb saves but overall the victory was deserved. We had tough times back in October and November so compliments to the team. To be here with two titles makes me very proud."

Kovac brought on departing club legends Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben for a final runout in front of the Bayern faithful and the two almost combined for a fourth goal in the final match of their illustrious careers in Munich.

The win sees Kovac, who won the double with Bayern as a player too, become the first head coach since Felix Magath in 2005 and 2006 to win back-to-back German Cups after his Frankfurt team beat Bayern in last year's final.

"I am very satisfied with the way we played well and won clearly," Lewandowski said. "We had the game under control and the second half we pushed a bit more and won the Cup.

"We gave everything for the double. At the end we can say that this season was very good for us."

India's fightback after being reduced to 39 for 4 was the positive Virat Kohli chose to look back after their emphatic loss to New Zealand in their first warm-up fixture at The Oval. In the absence of Vijay Shankar and Kedar Jadhav, India found a savior in Ravindra Jadeja, who top scored with a 50-ball 54 to haul India to 179.

Jadeja added 62 with Kuldeep Yadav for the eight wicket, allowing India to reach the 40-over mark, a prospect that looked unlikely when Trent Boult ran through the top order. Hardik Pandya's brisk 30 led a brief revival, only for the innings to stutter again until Jadeja guided the lower order.

"Very good," Kohli said of the lower-order contributions at the post-match presentation. "I mean, the one thing we spoke about in a tournament like the World Cup is, you could easily have your top order out for not too many, so the lower order has to look forward to that and I think Hardik [Pandya] batted really well. MS [Dhoni] absorbs the pressure really well and [Ravindra] Jadeja got a few runs as well, so I think from that point of view, we got a lot out of this game, which is what we wanted to. The lower order getting some runs that was the biggest positive."

Kohli assessed the surface wasn't as bowler-friendly in the second innings, after Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor put on a century stand to deflate India. New Zealand sealed victory with six wickets in hand and nearly 13 overs to spare.

"It's going to be very different from batting second and we saw that in this [game] in the later half of our innings as well," he said. "I think we bowled it in the right areas, they were going at about four, four-and-a-half, which I think we would take any day in a tournament where the pitches are going to be good. If we can keep hitting those areas consistently, which I think we did with the new ball and the spinners as well, we're going to be fine with that bowling attack."