Wales boss Warren Gatland admits he is worried about his lock options with Adam Beard and Cory Hill out of their World Cup opener against Georgia - but hopes both will be fit for Australia.

Beard has had his appendix removed, while Hill has not played since February because of an ankle injury and a stress fracture in his leg.

Wales face Georgia on 23 September and play Australia six days later.

"There is a concern at the moment with the second rows," said Gatland.

"He [Beard] is probably not going to be available for selection for the Georgia game, but the medics are confident he'll be available for the Australia game.

"[Hill] is the same. They're confident that he'll be available for selection against Australia.

"He's been out of his boot and on the training field today [Sunday], even though he wasn't doing any running. Hopefully, after that Georgia game, he'll be back training and available for selection."

Ospreys lock Beard was taken to hospital in Wales before the squad's departure on Wednesday.

The Welsh Rugby Union said the 23-year-old "had his appendix removed uneventfully" and will link up with the squad in Japan on Thursday.

Hill, meanwhile, continues his recovery from a stress fracture of his leg, having previously injured his ankle while scoring a try in the Six Nations win over England in February.

Without Hill and Beard, Wales' only available specialist second rows against Georgia will be captain Alun Wyn Jones and Jake Ball, with back-rower Aaron Shingler likely to provide lock cover on the bench.

Fly-half Rhys Patchell is also a doubt after he was forced off by a head injury during Wales' World Cup warm-up loss to Ireland in Dublin.

"He's gone through the HIA [head injury assessment] protocols," Gatland said of the Scarlets player.

"He was training this morning, just doing some non-contact stuff at this stage.

"We'll ease him back into contact work later in the week, making sure that we go through the protocols and ensure he's 100% and available for selection."

'Fantastic' welcome in Japan

After spending a couple of nights in Tokyo, Wales travelled to Kitakyushu on Saturday for a training camp.

The squad were given a rapturous welcome as they arrived at Kitakyushu Airport, while Welsh flags and messages of support have been plastered all over buildings and cars across the city.

"It's absolutely fantastic. They've embraced Wales, the team and the culture, even putting the red dragon on their fire engines," said Gatland.

"In fairness to the Welsh Rugby Union, particularly Ryan Jones and his team, they've been over here on a number of occasions, running coaching sessions to form a relationship with the local community.

"We heard last night that there has been a significant uptake in the number of youngsters playing rugby in Kitakyushu and the surrounding districts.

"We see that as being incredibly positive. For the players to see all the flags and posters around town has been quite humbling.

"It's brilliant that they city has got behind us.

"There are so many similarities between Kitakyushu and Wales in terms of the history of the mining industry and the ports.

"There is definitely a relationship there and hopefully we can continue to build on that."

LAS VEGAS – Tyler Reddick couldn’t win Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on speed, so he did it on fuel mileage instead.

Reddick ran the final 70 laps of the race on one tank of fuel, allowing him to outlast Christopher Bell in a nail-biting finish to the Rhino Pro Truck Outfitters 300 for his fifth victory of the season to wrap up the regular season for the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

Bell had the field in the palm of his hand throughout most of the race, forcing Reddick and his No. 2 Richard Childress Racing team to gamble on strategy. When the caution flag waved on lap 128 for a crash in turn four involving C.J. McLaughlin, they got their chance.

Reddick and a handful of other drivers hit pit road for fuel and tires on lap 130 while Bell and most of the leaders opted not to pit. Reddick and his team had aspirations to run the final 70 laps of the race without stopping again while Bell would be forced to make at least one more stop.

Racing resumed on lap 134 and Bell shot out away from the field. Behind him Reddick was taking his time and watching his lap times, trying to save as much fuel as possible for the stretch run.

The final round of pit stops began with 33 laps left and Bell made his final pit stop with 31 laps to go. As expected Reddick opted not to pit, remaining on the track as Bell and rest of the leaders hit the pits. Bell emerged from the pits nearly 20 seconds behind Reddick, but quickly began to cut into that lead.

By lap 181 Bell was back up to second, but he was still at least half the track behind Reddick. Bell continued to click off fast laps while Reddick continued to manage his pace, at times losing a second a lap to the fast closing Bell.

With four laps left Bell got to within three seconds of Reddick and continued to close the gap. Knowing Bell was coming in a hurry, Reddick changed his line and began running against the wall at the top of the track in an effort to find some speed and hold off Bell.

The gamble ended up paying off for Reddick as he got to the finish line first, .738 seconds ahead of Bell.

“That was nerve wracking to say the least. The last three laps I started losing fuel pressure and it was stumbling,” Reddick said. “I didn’t think I was going to make it running the fence. Christopher Bell had a really unreal fast race car today, but we were just able to come get fuel and tires and just save a lot. That allowed us to run really, really fast laps there for what we had on tires at the end to keep us in front of him.”

The victory served as an added bonus for Reddick, who clinched the NASCAR Xfinity Series regular season championship by the time the second stage was over. Once that was in the bag, Reddick said it was time for him to go figure out how to win the race.

“What I wanted to do was get that locked up in our Tame the Beast Chevrolet and make sure that we had that taken care of first before we tried to go win this race,” Reddick said. “Not going to lie to you, I didn’t think it was going to go that way. I didn’t think we were going to win it that way.”

Bell was left dejected after the race, lamenting that it was the second time this season that he had the field covered yet failed to win the race.

“This is the second time this year we got beat by circumstances,” Bell said. “At Iowa we put on our tires when we needed to and some guys gambled on a yellow coming out later and they beat us. Today they just kind of did the opposite of us and it won them the race.

“Very disappointing, but obviously very happy with how our Rheem Supra was. It was really fast, so that’s a good sign.”

Despite finishing second, Bell still leaves Las Vegas as the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship leader after the points reset for the first round of the playoffs. He’ll start the playoffs with 2,055 points, 11 points more than Reddick and Cole Custer, who are tied for second.

Other drivers who will race for the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship include Austin Cindric, Chase Briscoe, Justin Allgaier, Michael Annett, Noah Gragson, Brandon Jones, Justin Haley, Ryan Sieg and John Hunter Nemechek.

For complete results, advance to the next page.

MONTEREY, Calif. – Winward Racing is now a winning team in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge.

The elusive victory had escaped the No. 33 Mercedes-AMG GT4 team for three years, first joining the series in 2017 and the following year, announcing a partnership with the German Mercedes-AMG squad of HTP Motorsport that stands to this day.

Russell Ward – who has been with the program since its inception alongside team owner and father Bryce – was part of the winning lineup on Saturday afternoon at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. He stood with the team and cheered on as co-driver Dominik Baumann crossed the finish line first.

“It means an incredible amount to the team,” said Ward. “Everyone works so hard, and we bleed this together. To finally bring it home for the team feels incredible, especially after the season we’ve had. It’s just been a difficult season. We’ve had some crashes, some mechanical failures, just about everything in the book has been thrown at us.”

For the majority of the race, Winward’s toughest opponent appeared to be the No. 39 Carbahn with Peregrine Racing Audi R8 GT4 of Tyler McQuarrie and Jeff Westphal. McQuarrie qualified the car on pole and handed the car over to Westphal in that position.

Westphal brought the car into the pits before Baumann for his final stop. However, Baumann was able to make up enough ground on track before he entered the pits for a rear-tire change that allowed him to come out ahead in the end.

From there, he hunted down the handful of race cars looking to stretch their fuel tanks to the finish. He ultimately passed the No. 7 Park Place Motorsports Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport of Trent Hindman for the lead with eight minutes remaining in the two-hour race.

“We gained so much time on track, we were leading from after the pit stop,” said Baumann, who got the call to compete this weekend in his first Pilot Challenge race just a week ago. “The car was just great. I could defend the Audi at the end and pull a gap. It looked easy, but it wasn’t.

“We were setting up the car for race pace, not for one lap, and it helped us to have a good car in the race. Especially the last 15 to 20 minutes, we were strong. We made the right decisions, and it paid off in the end.”

McQuarrie and Westphal expanded their championship lead with a runner-up finish, nearly clinching the title with a 34-point lead, 262-228 over the No. 69 Motorsports In Action McLaren GT4 of Jesse Lazare and Corey Fergus with one race remaining.

Hindman and co-driver Alan Brynjolfsson held on for a third-place finish, moving up one spot to third in the championship standings with 218 points.

In TCR, Gavin Ernstone and Jon Morley put the No. 61 Roadshagger Audi RS3 LMS in victory lane.

One year ago the duo contested their second career race in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge. Returning this weekend to Monterey, Calif., they carried with them a string of four podium finishes in six races and a painstakingly near-win in its first full season. That victory finally came Saturday afternoon in an impressive 12th-to-first performance without a pit stop in the final 50 minutes of the two-hour race.

“The team did an incredible job, as they have the last five races, jumping us up during the pit stop,” said Morley, a San Francisco resident. “They got me out in third place, and then I managed to get to the lead pretty quick, pull out a bit of a gap, and then from there, it was just managing tires. We weren’t planning on running the whole way, but the way the race went, that’s what happened.”

The win ends a trying few weeks for Roadshagger, which was involved in a late-race incident from the lead at Virginia Int’l Raceway three weeks ago that wiped out a potential victory. The following Monday, Ernstone and Morley learned their partnering team, eEuroparts, was immediately withdrawing from the sport.

“As luck would have it, I own all the stuff that is in our team,” said Ernstone. “I own the car, the hauler, all the tools and everything else, and eEuroparts was running it for me. We just got a driver and a tractor unit straight over to Connecticut, got everything in there and brought it to (my shop in) Vegas.

“That car was finished three minutes into the beginning of the promoter test on Thursday. We thought we were going to be working on it and adjusting it through the promoter test, but it was perfect the whole test. That gave us the ability to work on strategy and everything else for this weekend. It’s been great. It couldn’t be better.”

With the victory, Ernstone and Morley moved into third place in the Pilot Challenge TCR standings, 14 points behind the leading No. 98 Bryan Herta Autosport Hyundai Veloster N TCR pair of Michael Lewis and Mark Wilkins, 256-242.

Lewis and Wilkins finished second on Saturday by a narrow .276 seconds after starting from the pole position. They hold an 11-point margin over their next closest competitors in the title hunt, Tom O’Gorman and Shelby Blackstock of the No. 37 L.A. Honda World Racing Honda Civic TCR, who finished third Saturday.

FREMONT, Ohio – D.J. Foos did all he could to try and claim the Fremont Speedway 410 track title Saturday.

He won the his second-straight feature, but it wasn’t enough to overtake Buddy Kofoid for the track title. Because Foos scored the win, Kofoid had to finish third or better to lock up his first championship and he did just that, finishing third to take the title by two points.

For Foos, his fourth victory of the season and 15th of his career at Fremont was tempered with the fact he just missed winning the track title.

“I gave it everything I had. We won the race…I knew if I won the race he (Kofoid) would have to take care of the rest. Hats off to the Linders and Buddy Kofoid. It feels good to win but man I really wanted that trifecta. We definitely have something to go off of for next year. Mikey had the car pretty good. I felt like I could go any where. I couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunity this year the Burmeisters have given to me,” said Foos.

“I wish it didn’t have to come down to being that close. It’s stressful and I hate playing points like that,” Kofoid said. “D.J. and his crew have the best car at Fremont. We got a little bit better tonight in the slick. Hats off to D.J. and his crew, they did all they could do. The 410 championship is pretty cool. I can’t thank Ed Neumeister enough and Ray Brooks with Gill Construction and CK Plumbing and all the Linders and everyone who makes this car what it is.”

Caleb Griffith and Gary Taylor brought the field to green for the 30 lap Fort Ball Pizza Palace 410 feature with Griffith gaining the advantage over Taylor, Foos, Craig Mintz, Kofoid and Nate Dussel. Following a lap two caution, Griffith once again pulled away as Taylor had his hands full with Foos who eventually took the runner-up spot two laps later.

While Griffith was glued to the bottom, Foos was able to make up ground quickly using the middle line and took the lead on lap nine. Kofoid used lapped traffic to take third on lap 13 just before the caution flew. With a clear track Foos pulled away on the restart over Griffith, Kofoid, Taylor, Mintz and Stuart Brubaker.

Foos built up a four second lead with 10 laps to go while Griffith held off Kofoid with Dussel closing.  A final caution flew with five laps to go, but Foos was too strong on the restart to pull away for the win over Griffith, Kofoid, Dussel and Taylor.

Alvin Roepke took the lead with five laps to go in the Fremont Federal Credit Union 305 feature and drove to his seventh career victory at Fremont Speedway.

With his fourth place finish, Fremont’s John Ivy claimed his second straight 305 track championship. It is Ivy’s eighth total track title as he has three 410 championships, four 305 titles and a dirt truck championship.

Kent Brewer had to hold off a last lap charge by Brad Mitten to score his seventh dirt truck feature win at Fremont Speedway. With his sixth place finish, Shawn Valenti wrapped up his second track championship.

MACON, Ill. – Logan Seavey took the lead on lap nine of 30 and never looked back on the way to a dominating win in Saturday’s POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League feature at Macon Speedway.

The victory is Seavey’s 10th of the year in POWRi competition. He is now one shy of Christopher Bell’s series single-season record of 11 set in 2014.

After a pair of early first-lap cautions, the third time proved to the charm for 16-year-old Cannon McIntosh as he moved past Tanner Carrick to lead lap one with Seavey in third.

McIntosh would maintain the point position early, while Seavey would move to the bottom to overtake Carrick for second on lap three. As Seavey continued to move forward, the action began to heat up as he and McIntosh battled for the top spot with Jake Neuman joining the battle after taking third.

On lap six, McIntosh and Seavey would go side-by-side for the lead with the two Toyotas making contact, but McIntosh would maintain the top spot, followed by Seavey, Neuman, Carrick, Zach Daum and Jesse Colwell.

Finally, on lap nine, Seavey was able to clear McIntosh for the lead and quickly began to pull away from the field. Two laps later, Neuman would go high to overtake McIntosh for second.

As the race moved past the midway point, Seavey stretched his lead out to over a full straightaway. As the laps continued to wind down Seavey had pulled out to more than a second-and-a-half lead and the focus turned to the battle for third between Carrick and McIntosh, with McIntosh reclaiming the position on lap 28.

At the checkered flag, it was Seavey, followed by Neuman, McIntosh, Carrick and Daum. The victory was Seavey’s third in the last four POWRi events.

With his sixth-place showing, Colwell continues to lead the POWRi point standings by 170 points over Daum with seven races remaining.

In other action, Chad Elliott won the POWRi Engler Machine & Tool Outlaw Micro League feature from the pole. Jeremy Nichols won the Archer’s Alley Street Stocks main event while Rob Timmons collected the victory in the Neal Tire & Auto Pro Modified feature.

The finish:

Logan Seavey, Jake Neuman, Cannon McIntosh, Tanner Carrick, Zach Daum, Jesse Colwell, Holley Hollan, Andrew Felker, Austin Brown, Austin O’Dell, Karter Sarff, Daison Pursley, Jesse Love, Ace McCarthy, Daniel Robinson, David Camfield, Dalton Camfield, Devin Camfield, Shelby Boise, Broc Hunnell. 

LANCASTER, N.Y. – Chuck Hossfeld won the Joe Reilly Crown Royal Classic 54 Race of Champion Sportsman Modified event on Saturday at Lancaster Speedway @ New York International Raceway Park as part of the 31st annual U.S. Open Weekend.

In additional action from U.S. Open Saturday, Joe Mancuso won the John Julicher Memorial RoC Super Stock feature. Josh Schosek won the RoC 4-Cylinder Dash Series feature. Bobby Holmes won his second RoC TQ Midget U.S. Open feature.

Tyler Catalano and Daryl Lewis Jr. led the field of 29 RoC Sportsman to the opening green flag of the fourth annual Joe Reilly Crown Royal Classic, which pays tribute to championship winning crew chief, Joe Reilly, who passed away in 2016. Lewis grabbed the lead at the start while Catalano slipped backwards in the opening laps. Heat winner Eddie Hawkins landed in second place followed by Shawn Nye, Patrick Emerling and Hossfeld.

The first caution of the event happened on lap 8 when Dave Kozlowski spun out in turn two. On the restart Tommy Catalano spun into the infield off of turn four. Leo Becker also spun, which collected Ted Appleton and Jayme Thompson. Hossfeld and Emerling got by Nye on the restart to move into second and third place respectively.

The yellow flag came out again on lap 20 when Becker spun out again in turn three. On the restart, Hossfeld pushed up high going into turn one, which cost him about four positions. This moved Emerling to second followed Nye, Mike Fiebelkorn, Jr. and Andy Jankowiak

The caution flag came out again on lap 21 for a spin by Becker and Jeff Szafraniec. The cars splashed water up on the race track from the infield, which led to a lengthy caution. Emerling developed an axle problem under caution, and was forced to pit. With Emerling surrendering the runner-up spot it moved up Nye, Fiebelkorn, Jankowiak and the rest of the field.

Tyler Catalano backed into the Thermal Foam blocks in turn two on lap 31. Jankowiak had moved up to second place by this point followed by Hossfeld, Fiebelkorn and Nye. Hossfeld managed to take the lead from Lewis on the restart.

Lewis and Jankowiak got together in turn one on lap 34, which resulted in another caution period that included Mike Ramos and Tony Carbone. By this point Tommy Catalano had driven his way back through the field after his lap 8 spin. He moved into third place behind Hossfeld and Nye by lap 34.

Catalano got by Hossfeld for the lead on lap 36, but his stay at the front of the field was short lived as Hossfeld regained first place just three laps later. Hossfeld and Catalano continued to battle for first as the race entered the final ten laps. Despite repeated attempts by Catalano, Hossfeld would not be denied his fourth-straight U.S. Open Sportsman feature win.

Hossfeld crossed the finish line first just ahead of Catalano. Emerling came back through the field after his crew repaired the broken axle to finish third. Mike Leaty came home fourth with Fiebelkorn rounding out the top five. The victory gives Hossfeld nine career U.S. Open victories with five wins in the Modifieds and four in the Sportsman.

Joe Mancuso scored his fourth career U.S. Open Super Stock feature win and second in a row to capture the second annual John Julicher Memorial. Mancuso passed TJ Cochrane for the lead on lap 7, and never looked back as the race went caution-free for the first 29 of 30 laps.

Cochrane spun out while running second to bring out the yellow, which set up a green-white-checkered finish. Mancuso out ran Tommy Krawczyk for the final two laps to secure the victory. Krawczyk finished second followed by Jake Wylie, Tommy Barron and Andy Cryan. Cryan finished fifth starting fifteenth.

Josh Schosek led all 25 laps from the pole position to win the Butch Palmer Memorial for the RoC 4-Cylinder Dash Series. Schosek was the dominant car as he pulled away from the field late in the race to score his first U.S. Open win and second feature win of 2019 at Lancaster.

Charles Palmer finished second after an intense battle with the rest of the top five. Dave Brunka finished third after starting 12th. Bob Palmer and Briar Dils rounded out the top five finishers.

Bobby Holmes captured his second career U.S. Open TQ Midget feature win as he won the 25-lap RoC TQ Midget Series event. Holmes started 11th and passed Kyle Hutchinson and Dave Wollaber to take the lead on lap 14.

Hutchinson started on the pole and led the first 13 laps. Wollaber and Holmes made their way to the front of the field to join Hutchinson in a three-car battle. Holmes went from third to first to take the lead for good with 11 laps to go.

Andy Jankowiak came from the 20th starting position to finish second after passing Wollaber late in the race. Wollaber placed third followed by Hutchinson and Jeremy Haudricourt.

GRAND BLANC, Mich. — Jerry Kelly birdied the first five holes on the back nine and finished with a 7-under 65 on Saturday to take a one-stroke lead into the final round of the PGA Tour Champions' Ally Challenge.

Kelly had a 12-under 132 total at rain-softened Warwick Hills, the longtime home of the PGA Tour's defunct Buick Open. He won the American Family Insurance Championship in June in his hometown of Madison, Wisconsin, for his fourth victory on the 50-and-over tour.

''You always have to go low out here,'' Kelly said. ''Somebody's always going to shoot a good score and I'm glad it was me today.''

Charles Schwab Cup points leader Scott McCarron was tied for second with Woody Austin. McCarron, a three-time winner this season, birdied four of the last five holes in a 67.

''Any time you can finish like that, it's a pretty good day,'' McCarron said. ''I didn't really get anything going for most of the day, but I was hitting it well and I was hitting good putts, they weren't going in, so I just had to stay really patient.''

Austin shot 65.

Bernhard Langer (67), Jerry Smith (68) and Tom Gillis (69) were 9 under.

Carlos Vela scored his MLS leading 28th goal of the season in his return from a two-game injury layoff, but Supporters' Shield leaders LAFC settled for a 1-1 draw against the Philadelphia Union on Saturday night at Talen Energy Stadium.

LAFC (19-4-7, 64 points) have already clinched the Western Conference championship and hold a seven-point lead over New York City FC for the Shield, the trophy awarded to the team that finishes with the best regular-season record.

But they're now winless in their last four matches -- including three draws -- after having gone no more than two games without a victory for most of the season.

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Kacper Przybylko scored his team-leading 14th goal for Philadelphia (15-8-7, 52 points), which moved within five points of NYCFC in the Eastern Conference standings, and is now four points ahead of third-place Atlanta.

The Union have never finished above third in the East since entering the league in 2011. The top finisher in each conference secures a bye in the 14-team playoff field.

Vela tied the game at 1-1 two minutes before halftime. Diego Rossi sprayed the ball wide to Mark-Anthony Kaye, who struck a first-time volley over Union keeper Andre Blake and off the crossbar. Vela was first to the rebound inside the penalty area, and he poked in a finish that deflected off a couple Union players on its way over the goal line.

The longtime Mexico international played 66 minutes before exiting in his first action since Aug. 25. On that night, he departed a 3-3 draw against the LA Galaxy in the 61st minute with a hamstring injury.

Przybylko gave Philadelphia the lead after only three minutes with his fifth goal in his last six games following a flowing attack down the right flank. After taking a pass from deeper in midfield pass, Alejandro Bedoya played the ball forward to Fafa Picault, who then curled in a cross toward Przybylko near the penalty spot.

The ball was nearly too high for Przybylko. But the German arched back and managed to send a looping header back toward the right post, over wrong-footed goalkeeper Tyler Miller, just under the crossbar and across the goal line.

Australia Women 108 for 4 (Lanning 54*, Henry 2-15) beat West Indies Women 106 for 8 (Taylor 44*, Schutt 3-31) by six wickets

Australia Women carried forward their dominant performance on the Caribbean tour from the ODIs to the T20I format, with a six-wicket win over West Indies Women in the first T20I in Bridgetown, Barbados.

Australia's chase of 107 was controlled well by captain Meg Lanning's unbeaten run-a-ball 54, after the side had lost the openers in a span of three overs. Lanning found support from Ellyse Perry, who shared in a third-wicket stand of 57, even as the Australia captain made the most of a reprieve she received to bring up her 13th T20I fifty. Lanning took her overall T20I run tally to 2547 becoming the first Australian and the fourth batsman in women's cricket to score more than 2500 runs in the format. The knock was also Lanning's third consecutive fifty-plus score on the tour

West Indies' efforts with the bat followed much the same template as the ODI series, with a batting collapse hampering their chances in the game. By the end of the Powerplay, they had lost half their side with 38 on the board, and it was left to captain Stafanie Taylor to shepherd them past 100 with the help of the lower order. Megan Schutt, who had taken a hat-trick in the final match of the ODI series, was once again effective, dismissing Britney Cooper and Reniece Boyce in the Powerplay before taking her third wicket in the death overs. Perry, Delissa Kimmince and Jess Jonassen took a wicket each, with Jonassen conceding only 11 runs in four overs.

The match saw a delay in the opening over, after West Indies had opted to bat. According to cricket.com.au, after Schutt had dismissed Cooper off the fourth ball of the first over, the on-field umpires signaled for assistance, as they felt the markers for the inner fielding circle were wrongly placed. The game was delayed until the inner boundary circle was measured and the placement of the markers was corrected to 25 yards.