Harry Olding from Porthcawl plays rugby union for Wales Under-18s, but could be about to swap sports for American football.

The prop was among 150 teenagers put through their paces at the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, with selection for the London-based NFL Academy at stake.

Newcastle Falcons have signed lock Sebastian de Chaves from London Irish on a one-year deal.

De Chaves, 28, was born in South Africa but is English-qualified and has played for Leicester Tigers and most recently the Exiles in the English leagues.

He helped Irish win immediate promotion back to the Premiership last season and will now attempt to go back-to-back following his move to Kingston Park.

"I think Newcastle are in for an exciting season," de Chaves said.

"It's obviously disappointing for the club to drop down a division, but it's a chance for the team to re-set a little and it's a different type of pressure."

Falcons director of rugby Dean Richards added: "Sebastian gives us a big physical presence in the second row and is a welcome addition to our squad.

"He was a Championship title winner last season, he has plenty of experience of English rugby and he joins us in the week that our pre-season preparations got under way."

Harlequins have signed Fiji internationals Vereniki Goneva and Tevita Cavubati from Newcastle Falcons for the 2019-20 Premiership season.

Winger Goneva, 35, is 14th on the list of all-time top league scorers in England with 58 tries, and at international level has 20 in 55 Tests.

Meanwhile, Cavubati, 31, made eight Premiership appearances last season.

The lock will arrive once Fiji's World Cup commitments are completed in Japan this autumn.

"Big Tex is an excellent signing for the club and I am delighted he is joining us for the new season," said head of rugby Paul Gustard. "I have been looking to add a lock for some time and when Tevita's name was proposed he was a standout candidate for us."

Cavubati's team-mate Goneva spent five years at Leicester Tigers before joining Falcons in 2016, and offers a replacement for the retired Tim Visser.

"It's a real coup for us," added Gustard. "With Tim's retirement at the end of last season we have been looking to bring in quality to supplement our very exciting young wingers in Gabs [Ibitoye] and Cadan [Murley], and there is no doubt Niki is real quality."

The duo join another new import in Springbok three-quarter Travis Ismaiel at The Stoop for the forthcoming campaign.

"They were the first club that I had a jersey for," said Goneva. "My dad bought me one when I was very little because it is his favourite team, and so I have always had an affinity for them."

INDIANAPOLIS — It all seems to run in loops, nice and tidy circles, for Kyle Moyer.

On Memorial Day weekend, he spent most of his Sunday afternoon shepherding Simon Pagenaud through the Indianapolis 500 and closed it by sharing the winner’s circle with his Team Penske mates.

Forty-seven years earlier, in 1972, he’d attended the 500 for the first time. That one, too, fell to a Penske driver in Mark Donohue.

Circles.

That ’72 race played a bigger role in Moyer’s life than he could have imagined. It was something of a wonder that he was there at all.

No one else in the Moyer clan — then living in Greenwood, Ind., 20 miles south of Indianapolis Motor Speedway — was interested in motorsports.

But family custom allowed each child to choose how he or she wanted to celebrate a birthday, and Kyle, at eight years old, blazed his own trail.

“My brothers and sisters would pick Pacers games and things like that,” said Moyer, standing outside Penske’s Gasoline Alley garage. “But in 1972, I convinced them to take me here, to watch the 500.”

That race sits in the history books as Roger Penske’s first — and Donohue’s only — Indianapolis score. Sentimentalists remember it for the run turned in by Gary Bettenhausen in Penske’s other entry.

Bettenhausen led 138 laps and victory in the great race would have gilded the legacy left by his father, two-time national champion Tony Bettenhausen, who won everywhere except Indianapolis and died there in 1961. But a pinhole leak in the cooling system of Bettenhausen’s Mc­Laren cooked its engine and parked him after 182 laps.

That heartbreak left a mark on all who witnessed it, including the Moyer boy on his birthday outing.

You can imagine the surprise a few years down the road, when the Moyer family moved two dozen miles west to Monrovia, Ind., and young Kyle discovered that his new neighbor was Bettenhausen.

Another loop.

He became fast friends with Gary’s twin sons, Todd and Cary, and the Bettenhausen race shop became a regular hangout. When he was 14, “Gary put a wrench in my hand and started figuring out what I could do.”

Moyer learned the ropes laboring on Bettenhausen’s sprint car and from 1980-82 helped prepare mounts Gary raced at Indianapolis for Sherman Armstrong and Lindsey Hopkins.

Those cars were old and tired, but they were good enough to make the 500, and that was what mattered.

A 1974 dirt-track flip had ruined Bettenhausen’s left arm and with it his shot at the headline rides, but still the speedway pulled at him like gravity.

Like all who toiled for Bettenhausen — whose pals dubbed him “The Fuhrer” — Moyer cherishes his memories.

“Gary was tough,” said Moyer, “but I’ve always been glad he was. Working for him kept me out of trouble, and taught me a lot.

“The attitude I have today and the way I go racing — my whole mindset — came mainly from him.”

Moyer and his mindset have bounced around quite a bit. He left Bettenhausen in 1984 to take a job with Dan Gurney’s All American Racers — “Gary didn’t talk to me for a little while” — and then did stints with Ron Hemelgarn’s team and Galles Racing.

In 1992, Moyer first tasted victory at Indianapolis with Galles and Al Unser Jr. It was an enormous relief to Moyer, who’d seen Bettenhausen go 0-for-life in the 500.

“We almost had the win in ’89,” said Moyer said. “But Al Jr. got knocked out in that crash with Emerson (Fittipaldi). When that happens, you wonder: Will I ever get this chance again?”

He won a second 500 in 1995, with Forsythe Racing and Jacques Villeneuve. But then the sport blew itself apart, with CART on one side and the Indy Racing League on the other. Moyer, working for CART teams, missed every Indianapolis 500 from 1996-2000.

He’d been with Bettenhausen long enough to develop his own magnetic attraction to the speedway, so racing elsewhere in May was “a killer.”

He finally got back there in 2001, with driver Michael Andretti, as part of a joint effort between CART’s Team Green and the IRL’s Panther Racing.

From there, things have gone pretty well: With Andretti Green Racing and Andretti Autosport, Moyer had a hand in the Indianapolis triumphs of Dan Wheldon, Dario Franchitti and Ryan Hunter-Reay; since his 2015 move to Team Penske, where he is now general manager of the IndyCar program, he’s celebrated after the 500 with Juan Montoya, Will Power and now Pagenaud.

He can’t pick a favorite Indy win because “each one is special for a different reason. But winning here never gets old.”

Someone asked Moyer what Gary Bettenhausen, who died in 2014, might have made of his success at the track they both loved most.

“I hope he’d be proud of me,” said Moyer. “I think he would be. He’d probably be giving me crap for not going to more sprint car races, but he’d be happy for me because of what this place meant to him. Especially now that I’m at Penske; I’m finishing something here that he didn’t get to.

“It has come full circle.”

Doesn’t it always?

INDEPENDENCE, Iowa – With point leader Brandon Sheppard picking up his ninth win in 17 races last week at Terre Haute Action Track, Rocket1 Racing boasts a win percentage of nearly 53 percent on the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series this year.

Prior to Friday night, Sheppard had never won at the famed half-mile oval in Outlaws competition.

This weekend, he and the Rocket Chassis house car will lead the Outlaws northward into one track not seen by the tour in some time, and one staple of the Northern and Midwest swing – Independence Motor Speedway on July 5 and Deer Creek Speedway on July 6.

Sheppard has yet to win at either of these two tracks. However, his predecessor in the Rocket1 ride, four-time series champion Josh Richards, has won at both in past seasons. \

In fact, Richards’ last win in World of Outlaws action at Deer Creek came during his 2016 championship-winning and record-setting season.

The record Richards set that year was the single-season wins tally of 18 – a feat that Sheppard duplicated just one season later, after replacing Richards in the blue No. 1.

This brings up an interesting question – how do those two dominant seasons compare to the one Sheppard is having in 2019, and is he on pace to break the record he shares with Richards this season?

Looking in the win column going into the always-busy month of July, 2016 Richards had eight wins in 20 races, garnering a win percentage of 40. Before the first race of July in 2017, Sheppard was seven for 20, or a win percentage of 35.

However, in both 2016 and 2017, Richards and Sheppard outdid themselves in the second half of their respective seasons.

Richards went on win 10 races in his next 19 starts (excluding preliminary and special features) with a win percentage of 52.6, while Sheppard went 11 for 23 for a win percentage of 47.8.

In both of those seasons, both drivers needed to win at least 10 features in the last five months of the year to get to 18 wins.

Going into this weekend with an outlook to November, Sheppard only needs nine wins over the next 26 races, barring any rainouts or cancellations.

That’s a win percentage of 34.6 – a whole 18.3 percent worse than what he has right now.

Judging by win percentage, it appears Sheppard is on pace to break the 18 mark. In support of that statement, he has won at nine of the next 23 tracks the series is scheduled to visit over the next five months – exactly the number of wins he needs to reach 18.

All previous stats considered, the potential is there. But which driver looks best to stop him?

This weekend, look no further than the current runner-up in points, Darrell Lanigan.

Of the four World of Outlaws races held at Independence, Lanigan has won the last three of them, the most recent coming in 2014.

As for Deer Creek, no other driver has won more World of Outlaws races there than Lanigan (six of 16). Richards is the next closest with two (2011 and 2016).

However, “The Bluegrass Bandit” has not won yet with the Outlaws this season, so all eyes will be on him to see if he can break through this weekend at two tracks he’s certainly no stranger to.

Otherwise, the weekend may just be one more step on Sheppard’s march toward history.

COLORADO SPRINGS – Following the tragic death of Spider Grips Ducati motorcycle rider Carlin Dunne at the Broadmoor Pikes Peak Int’l Hill Climb, Ducati North America and Pikes Peak officials have created a GoFundMe account to support Carlin’s mother Romie.

His loss has been felt throughout the international motorcycling and racing community.

Dunne was a four-time champion of the Pikes Peak Int’l Hill Climb, won Rookie of the Year honors in 2011 and broke the 10-minute barrier the following year, setting a new course record that stood for five years.

He then selflessly volunteered two race seasons as part of Ducati’s Squadra Alpina Team, with the Race Smart program, mentoring rookie riders as they first came to race the mountain. Dunne was loved, respected and admired by all those whose lives he touched.

Following the race, at the Awards Ceremony on Monday, competitors paid tribute to Carlin as a mentor, friend, competitor and icon, and spoke of the impact he made on their lives.

In addition to his efforts at Pikes Peak, Carlin’s passion for two wheels took on all forms.

He raced and won the SCORE Baja 500, competed in the SCORE Baja 1000, was one of the first two riders to traverse the La Carrera Panamericana, ran in the Super Hooligan series Bonneville Land Speed Racing, was a pioneer in Freeride mountain biking, served as a partner in Ducati Santa Barbara and did motorcycle stunt work for both television and film.

All proceeds raised through the GoFundMe account will go directly to Dunne’s mother to help with expenses and to honor his legacy with a celebration of life in Santa Barbara a month from now.

The PPIHC Board of Directors have donated $932 to represent Carlin’s incredible estimated time of 9:32, had he crossed the finish line.

It would have been a new motorcycle course record, beating the current by 12 seconds.

The established GoFundMe account is the only official channel for donations and support, and donations can be made by clicking here.

MACON, Ill. – The stars of the DIRTcar Summer Nationals Hell Tour will be heading to Macon Speedway on Thursday night for the Herald & Review 100.

The crown jewel race, which will pay $5,000 to the winner, will draw some of the best dirt super late model drivers in the country to the fifth-mile, high-banked dirt oval.

Brian Shirley currently leads the Summer National standings, heading the order by 22 points over Bobby Pierce, who has been quickly closing the gap.

Shirley had a great start to the tour, winning four of the first six events, while Pierce has been solid but hasn’t been in victory lane like he has during past Summer Nationals seasons.

That said, Pierce has a few runner-up finishes as of late and is looking to make a tight battle out of the points before the end of the summer.

Winners on the tour this year include Shirley (four wins), Brandon Sheppard (two wins), and solo victors Kyle Bronson, Mike Marlar and Shannon Babb.

The biggest winner of the Hell Tour this year has been Mother Nature. Weather has claimed or affected 11 of the Summer Nationals events already this year.

Following Shirley and Pierce in the Hell Tour standings are Frank Heckenast Jr., Babb, and former DIRTcar national champion Rusty Schlenk.

Jason Feger, Sheppard, Billy Moyer, Tanner English and Paul Stubber complete the top 10.

Gordy Gundaker is the defending winner of the Herald & Review 100. Shannon Babb is the event’s most prolific driver, with five victories (2006, ’09, ’11, ’13, ’14) to his name.

Joining the Hell Tour super late models will be the Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals and Neal Tire & Auto Pro Mods.

Tommy Sheppard Jr. currently leads the modified division points at Macon, while Tim Hancock is atop the Pro Mod points.

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Longtime Los Angeles Kings coach Darryl Sutter joined the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday as an adviser to new coach Dallas Eakins' staff, enlivening an otherwise quiet free-agent signing period for Southern California's two rebuilding NHL clubs.

Sutter is the winningest coach in the history of the Kings, the Ducks' crosstown archrivals. He has been out of coaching since Los Angeles fired him in April 2017 despite his two Stanley Cup titles.

Anaheim general manager Bob Murray announced the addition with a dry news release, but Sutter's move down the I-5 freeway added some intrigue to a fallow year for Southern California hockey. The Kings and Ducks missed the Stanley Cup playoffs in the same spring for the first time since 2004, and neither team has made a significant addition in free agency.

"Darryl will provide invaluable expertise to our coaching staff and players," Murray said. "Both Dallas and I agree his proven track record and vast knowledge of the game will be very beneficial for us."

The 60-year-old Sutter coached Los Angeles to its only two championships in 2012 and 2014. He won a franchise-record 225 games over five-plus seasons, and his Kings won an impressive 10 playoff series over three seasons during their prime.

The Kings fired Sutter after they missed the playoffs for the second time in three seasons. Los Angeles failed to win a playoff series in the three seasons following its second championship.

Before he joined Los Angeles, Sutter was a general manager and coach with the Calgary Flames. He also had previous stints as a head coach with San Jose and Chicago.

Although Sutter's Kings put together one of the most impressive three-season runs in recent hockey history, his apparent preference for a deliberate, physical style of play often appeared to clash with the speed and skill prevalent in the modern game.

Yet the change didn't help the Kings, who are on their third head coach in two years since Sutter's dismissal. Los Angeles hired Todd McLellan in April.

Anaheim appointed Eakins last month after firing Randy Carlyle last season. Assistant coaches Mark Morrison and Marty Wilford are expected to stay on Eakins' staff after they finished last season as assistants to Murray, who coached the Ducks' final 26 games.

SUNRISE, Fla. -- Sergei Bobrovsky already has two Vezina Trophies, the award presented at the end of each season to the NHL's top goaltender.

He's not looking for a third.

For the Florida Panthers' new goalie, only one trophy matters now.

Bobrovsky and Florida's three other free-agent signings -- defenseman Anton Stralman, and forwards Brett Connolly and Noel Acciari -- put on their new Panthers sweaters for the first time Tuesday in their official introduction to South Florida. When they're back to begin training camp in just over two months, the Stanley Cup will be the singular goal for the long-struggling Panthers.

"It doesn't matter what you win individually," Bobrovsky said. "Hockey's a team sport and it's all about the Cup. Only one team can win the Cup each season. That's my main goal. That's what I want to do. That's why I am here now. I believe in this team. I believe in this group."

Bobrovsky was the Panthers' biggest acquisition this summer, at least from a player sense. Florida's offseason began with a coaching change and the hiring of three-time Stanley Cup champion Joel Quenneville, who said having a great goaltender is "the biggest ingredient" when putting together a team that can truly win a title.

And the Panthers think they got the best goalie in the game, someone who led the NHL with nine shutouts last season and then backstopped Columbus to a stunning sweep of Tampa Bay in the opening round of the playoffs -- after the Lightning were far and away the league's best team during the regular season.

"Sergei, we know the importance of goaltending," Quenneville said. "He comes in and gives us a No. 1 goalie that can play big games. He's going to play a lot of hockey here. We know how goaltending can influence a game and we know how goaltending can win in the playoffs as well. So he's excited about this opportunity."

Bobrovsky was long believed to be Florida's top free-agent target, and it was widely presumed that he would pick the Panthers. He decided last week that he would indeed sign with Florida, and a $70 million, seven-year offer got it done.

"With the bright future this team has, with the great coach, with the great management, and with the really talented group of guys I'm excited to be here," Bobrovsky said. "I think we can make something special here."

Bobrovsky will replace Roberto Luongo as Florida's No. 1 goaltender, following Luongo's retirement. Sam Montembeault, who made his first 10 NHL starts last season with the Panthers, is likely going be the backup.

Florida has missed the playoffs in 16 of the last 18 seasons, hasn't won a playoff series since 1996 and will have had 16 coaches in 26 seasons when Quenneville makes his debut. But the Panthers touted a promising young core for years, had one of the NHL's top offenses last season and believe Bobrovsky will be the difference-maker on the defensive end of the ice now.

"It's a process," Bobrovsky, 30, said. "It's not going to be easy. Nobody says this is going to be smooth and nice. We're going to have to overcome some adversity. But those things will make us stronger."