Former England Sevens winger Ruaridh McConnochie has signed a new four-year contract with Bath.

McConnochie made a seamless switch to the 15-a-side game, scoring four tries in 15 Premiership matches, and made his European Champions Cup bow.

The Lambeth-born back joined the Blue, Black and Whites last summer.

"I've loved being in this city and being in such a great environment at Bath Rugby," McConnochie, 27, told the club website.

"When I joined last summer, my focus was to learn the game and if I got the opportunity it was about making the most of it.

"The experience so far has exceeded my expectations and I'm looking forward to what's to come for us as a club."

New director of rugby Stuart Hooper added: "To have agreed a long-term deal with Ruaridh is a statement of intent from not only the club, but from him too.

"He has been outstanding from the outset, but the exciting part is that there's still so much growth in his game."

Wasps are to sign Coventry-born winger Paolo Odogwu from Sale Sharks for the 2019-20 season.

Odogwu, 22, has scored seven tries in 29 first-grade games for the Sharks, having previously come through the Leicester Tigers academy system.

The England Under-20 international is Dai Young's tenth summer signing.

"He has been stuck behind the likes of seasoned internationals in Chris Ashton, Denny Solomona and Marland Yarde," director of rugby Young said.

"At just 22, he needs more game-time. We recognise that he has a lot of potential and has a bit of X-factor about him."

Johnny Sexton does not believe Ireland have peaked a year too early and says they have unfinished business at this year's Rugby World Cup.

The Ireland fly-half says they will go to Japan with a mixture of confidence and fear that will "bode well for us".

Ireland moved up to second in the world rankings after a superb 2018 but then had a lacklustre 2019 Six Nations.

Sexton says the hurt of disappointing World Cup exits in 2011 and 2015 will also spur the players on this autumn.

Fine margins

Under Joe Schmidt, Ireland enjoyed their greatest calendar year in 2018, winning the Grand Slam and a first series win in Australia since 1979.

They saved the best for last, recording a historic first victory over the All Blacks on home soil in November, but took a step backwards by finishing third in this year's Six Nations campaign and losing to both England and Wales.

"I don't think we have peaked," says Sexton.

"I didn't think we'd peaked when we won the Grand Slam and I didn't think we'd peaked when we beat the All Blacks either.

"It's amazing how opinions can change in the space of a couple of months.

"We beat the All Blacks and all the talk was 'nothing's going to stop us winning the World Cup' and then three or four games later, we're the worst team ever and people think we've peaked.

"We've got time together now to really work on things through the summer.

"We'll have some games beforehand to try and find our form and hopefully go to the World Cup knowing that, on our day, we can beat anyone but also have that fear that, on any day, we can lose to anyone as well.

"I think that's a good place to be. You always need that fear factor and that confidence as well.

"We've got a mixture of both and I think that'll bode well for us."

Sexton, the World Rugby Player of the Year, has won every trophy possible in his professional career, except for a World Cup.

The pain of the defeats by Wales in 2011 and Argentina in 2015 - when he was unable to play because of an injury picked up in the previous game against France - still haunt him.

Even this year's Champions Cup final loss to Saracens is something he says will stay with him, and with a World Cup on the line, plus the imminent departures of coach Schmidt and retiring captain Rory Best, Sexton will use past hurt to motivate him as Ireland seek to reach the semi-finals for the first time.

He said: "For everyone that's going it's unfinished business.

"We feel we maybe let it slip at the last World Cup and there's been some regrets from some of the other ones I was at too.

"In 2011 we had that quarter-final against Wales, knowing that if we won that - and we'd beaten Wales a few times - that we could have had France in the semi-final.

"Sitting and watching then [against Argentina in 2015] was very, very tough. You want to be out there with the guys, contributing with them and being in the dressing room afterwards was probably the lowest point, watching the lads suffering and not being part of it.

"So, there's always those regrets.

"That's why we'll be working extremely hard over the summer, to make sure we try and close those small margins in our favour and make sure we come away having done something special."

Ireland's Rugby World Cup fixtures

Sunday, 22 September - Ireland v Scotland

Saturday, 28 September - Japan v Ireland

Thursday, 3 October - Ireland v Russia

Saturday, 12 October - Ireland v Samoa

Wales won the Grand Slam and ruled the Six Nations. Leinster retained the Pro14 title, but were pushed by Glasgow. And Saracens were crowned champions of Europe and the Premiership for the second time in four seasons.

Another stellar season of rugby union has come to an end, but who deserves the individual awards? Which young players shone and who made an impression?

Just like the players, the BBC's Rugby Union Weekly podcast is going on a summer break.

But before that, England scrum-half Danny Care, former England winger Ugo Monye and rugby union correspondent Chris Jones decide their end-of-season awards.

Player of the season - Liam Williams

Chris Jones: Who was the best player in the northern hemisphere from September to June? I think it's hard to argue with Liam Williams. He's won a few trophies this season and was instrumental in all of them. The play he made on Garry Ringrose - first tackling the Leinster centre and then winning a turnover at the resulting ruck - changed the Champions Cup final, and his try changed the Premiership final.

Danny Care: Yep, I'm going with Liam Williams. He's won the treble this year - Grand Slam, European Champions Cup and the Premiership. He seems to have taken his game to a whole new level. He's unbelievable in the air, a hell of a finisher and reads the game so well in defence.

CJ: But I'd also like to chuck in Jamie George. Liam Williams is hard to top and he's got to be our pod choice, but George scored two tries in the Premiership final and he's got to start at hooker for England at the World Cup.

DC: As a player and a friend of his, we've always known how good Jamie is but this year everybody knows it now. He's one of the best in the world in his position and he's taken his game to new levels. The performances he's putting in in semi-finals and finals sets him apart from other people. He's been world class.

Young player of the season - Damian Penaud

Ugo Monye: I'm chucking Frenchmen Damian Penaud and Romain Ntamack into the mix. Clermont centre Penaud has elevated his game and is looking class at international level. He was superb in the Six Nations on the wing for France and scored a hat-trick in the knockout stage to help Clermont win the European Challenge Cup.

DC: What I love about Penaud is his raw pace, you won't find many faster in a straight-line 100m race. He reminds me a lot of England's Jonny May springing around the pitch and finding himself on the end of tries. He's ghosted past so many quality defenders this year, he's strong and powerful and knows where the try-line is. From a Premiership point of view, Gloucester wing Ollie Thorley has had a great year and what about Northampton centre Rory Hutchinson?

UM: Oh my gosh, I have a man crush on Rory Hutchinson. He is phenomenal, he's so silky and he does everything so well. He makes it all look so simple. But I'm sticking with Penaud.

Breakthrough player of the season - Alex Dombrandt

CJ: I know we mentioned him for young player, but Hutchinson is the breakthrough for me. He feels like the ideal representation of the new Northampton. A classic break-making centre, his incision against Exeter in the final round showed what Saints are all about under Chris Boyd. His breakthrough year could well lead to Japan.

UM: I'm going to say Wales and Worcester winger Josh Adams. He played last year and was brilliant, went on the summer tour for Wales but for me, during the Six Nations this year, there wasn't a better winger.

DC: It has to be Harlequins back row Alex Dombrandt. You can't be playing university rugby last season and then come and do what he does in the Premiership and not be breakthrough player of the season.

He was also carving up the Barbarians like they weren't even there at the weekend. From day one of pre-season I said to the coaches: 'This lad has got it all'. He reads the game so well, hits incredible lines and really reminds me of Nick Easter, who was probably the best player I've played alongside.

UM: Yep, from university to playing for England. And he got man of the match. Ridiculous. He has to be our breakthrough player and is an inspiration to others. This World Cup may come too soon for him but he will be alongside many other young England players targeting 2023.

Rugby Union Weekly podcast of the season

CJ: Inside the Wales camp, during the autumn internationals. They gave us unique and unprecedented access. We went everywhere, including the cryotheraphy chamber with Alun Wyn Jones, and even had lunch in the team room.

UM: I enjoyed Johnny Sexton coming on for 45 minutes after he lost his voice at the World Rugby Awards. That was fascinating. But also England and Saracens prop Hannah Botterman was hilarious, and Emily Scarratt and Mo Hunt are an incredible double act.

DC: Guest of the season... Ken Owens. After Wales won the Grand Slam, he picked up a withheld number after not going to bed and came on the podcast from a taxi to talk to us.

Editor’s Note: Holley Hollan, 17, is a rookie in the NOS Energy Drink USAC National Midget Series. Beginning June 5 through June 10, Hollan will be sharing her experiences with SPEED SPORT readers while competing during Indiana Midget Week. 

Hollan drives the No. 67k Toyota-powered midget for Keith Kunz Motorsports. Below is her first diary entry, recapping Tuesday night’s opener at Montpelier Motor Speedway in Montpelier, Ind.

While her first diary will be free to the public, the remainder of the series will be available to SPEED SPORT premium subscribers only. You can subscribe to become a premium member of SPEEDSPORT.com today for just $19.95/year by clicking here.

MONTPELIER, Ind. – For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Holley Hollan. I’m 17 years old and I’ve been racing since I was five, so I’ve been running micros for the past 12 years, really.

It’s definitely been a ride to get to this point. Last year was actually my first time racing a midget, and now this season I’m running full time for Keith Kunz Motorsports in USAC and POWRi and representing one of the biggest teams in the sport. It’s a really cool feeling.

RELATED: Patient Seavey Rules Indiana Midget Week Opener

This is actually my first Indiana Midget Week; all of this is new to me this year, because I’ve been in school up to this point, but graduated high school recently after finishing up a year early. Because of that, this is my first time at all of the tracks we’re racing this week, with the exception of Kokomo.

Our night Tuesday night in the opener at Montpelier (Motor Speedway) actually started out pretty well. We qualified seventh in flight one, two tenths off the fastest time in our group, but from there the track just went away and no moisture came about. With those conditions, we really struggled from then on.

The more the track went away, it seemed like we went away, too. We finished sixth in our heat, two spots out of transferring to the feature, and just got stuck in traffic in the B-main and finished 12th.

I think that adapting as the track changes is something that I do need to learn, being a rookie, particularly with throttle control as the track gets slick. When it was faster on the top, though, we were there.

For Tuesday being my first time at Montpelier, even though we didn’t make the feature, I’m decently happy with how we did. We showed speed in qualifying and my teammate, Logan Seavey, won the main and I think we’re right there and can make some noise as we keep learning.

To know that as a team, we won the first night of Indiana Midget Week with Logan and that our cars finished first and second, it’s reassuring and pushes you to your limits as a driver because you know what the equipment is capable of and you want to get that maximum out of your car each night as well.

We’re disappointed with our results on the No. 67k, but you have to have nights like we did at Montpelier to appreciate the good ones when the come along. I’m looking forward to the rest of the week and glad we’re not ending on this note.

Hopefully we can gain some momentum from here!

INDIANAPOLIS — This was sometime in late April, during the puzzling month-long gap in the NTT IndyCar Series calendar.

Four weeks is too long for any racing series to go dark, especially in an age when the average American has the attention span of a Jack Russell terrier.

On the bright side, May 1 fell smack in the middle of that gap and May means Indianapolis, so the IndyCar faithful — from team members to local barstool bums — at least had plenty to talk about.

“I see Penske is struggling,” one guy said over lunch, and he said it with a smile.

Some people enjoy it when Goliath stubs his toe. I hate to argue over a meal, so I just nodded. It was all nonsense, and I knew that. Truth is, he probably did too.

Yes, Josef Newgarden’s victory in the series opener at St. Petersburg was Team Penske’s only triumph in the first four races. Yes, it was nice to see a couple of underdogs — rookie Colton Herta at Circuit of The Americas and Takuma Sato at Barber Motorsports Park — get things right on days when Roger Penske’s juggernaut got things wrong.

But after the first four races of his season, Newgarden had a win, two runner-up finishes, a fourth and a nice lead in the standings.

And while Penske’s other two drivers hadn’t fared as well, it’s worth noting that their best days had been plagued by trouble.

No one was in Will Power’s league at Circuit of The Americas, but a drivetrain failure left him parked in the pits. Simon Pagenaud’s weekends at St. Pete and Austin were scuppered by qualifying-session red flags that left him lining up 13th and 22nd.

But Pagenaud’s race pace had been fine; some of his passes were breathtaking. Power had started every race in the top three. And Newgarden had the league’s best blend of speed and consistency. Yeah, some struggle.

Every now and then, people tell themselves that Penske is slumping, because, deep down, that’s what they hope to see. And, without fail, Team Penske crushes those hopes.

Team owner Roger Penske brushes off praise for his accomplishments, in racing and in business, by quoting a favorite old saying of his dad’s: “Effort equals results.”

And why not? That motto says a lot in just three words, and Roger Penske is not one to waste time with small talk.

But if those three words explain his success, I’ve got a bunch more — 201, to be exact — that account for why so many folks begrudge him his glory. They come from a famous Cadillac ad entitled “The Penalty of Leadership.”

It ran just once, more than a century ago, in a 1915 issue of the Saturday Evening Post. It carried no photos or illustrations, no pricing or technical data, and the only mention of the Cadillac name was a small logo. Its text said everything and this was some of it:

“In every field of human endeavor, he that is first must perpetually live in the white light of publicity. Whether the leadership be vested in a man or in a manufactured product, emulation and envy are ever at work. In art, in literature, in music, in industry, the reward and the punishment are always the same. The reward is widespread recognition; the punishment, fierce denial and detraction.

“When a man’s work becomes a standard for the whole world, it also becomes a target for the shafts of the envious few. …

“The leader is assailed because he is a leader, and the effort to equal him is merely added proof of that leadership. Failing to equal or to excel, the follower seeks to depreciate and to destroy — but only confirms once more the superiority of that which he strives to supplant.

“There is nothing new in this. It is as old as the world and as old as human passions: envy, fear, greed, ambition, and the desire to surpass. And it all avails nothing. If the leader truly leads, he remains the leader. …

“That which is good or great makes itself known, no matter how loud the clamor of denial.”

Among racing people, that clamor of denial takes the form of a guy grinning and declaring over his noontime French fries that Team Penske is going through a rough patch.

That fellow is best ignored, because in modern-day American motorsports, Roger Searle Penske remains the gold standard.

The smart people in the sport understand this. It’s impossible to read the line in that Cadillac ad that says “the effort to equal him is merely added proof of that leadership,” without thinking of Chip Ganassi and Michael Andretti, who will admit they have attained their team-owning prominence by studying, following and sticking to the Penske model.

That model amounts to this: Hire good people, stay the hell out of their way and keep finding the money to keep everything rolling.

Down through the years, every team owner who wanted to win big in IndyCar — or in CART, or on the old USAC Championship Trail — watched how Al Dean did it, or A.J. Foyt did it, or Vel Miletich and Parnelli Jones did it, or Carl Haas and Paul Newman did it.

In the modern era, there has been only one man to study. Roger Penske leads, period.

If you think he’s struggling today, watch him win tomorrow.

MONTPELIER, Ind. – The 15th renewal of USAC’s annual Indiana Midget Week mini-series kicked off Tuesday night at Montpelier Motor Speedway to a rousing crowd and several diverse storylines.

Chief among the highlights during the 30-lap feature were runs through the field by USAC Triple Crown champion Jerry Coons Jr. and recent Shamrock Classic winner Cannon McIntosh.

Coons rose from 20th to 11th in the Petry Motorsports-owned No. 5 Toyota, garnering the KSE/Prosource Hard Charger Award for his efforts, but lamented he couldn’t have started further ahead after a lackluster time-trial run buried him for the main event.

“The Hard Charger Award, to me, is really the ‘you need to qualify better’ award, but we’ll take a decent night out of here,” said Coons. “Our engines were just off a little bit, tuning-wise, early on and it set us back. We were actually off on our fuel system; we leaned it down and ended up with gearing that wasn’t quite right for the heat race. It was a night and day difference.

“Unfortunately we had to start way back, and I got a few cars on the bottom early, but once it laid rubber up top you had to move up there and just get cars however you could,” he added. “It wasn’t a good start, but we recovered a bit and did the best we could with the cards we had.”

– It was a similar story for McIntosh, who had the move of the night by going from seventh to first in one lap on the bottom to win his heat race, but was buried in 21st on the grid after a poor qualifying lap.

The 16-year-old charged forward to come home 12th, one spot behind Coons, and missed out on hard-charger honors via the tiebreaker for overall feature finish.

“Qualifying is just the part right now where, as a young driver, I lack,” McIntosh explained. “It’s really a bummer that we had to start so far back, because we had a fast car. We’ve been good in heat races to bounce back, but being buried in the field on a track that rubbered up tonight just killed us.

“The heat race was fun, though,” he added. “Everyone was trying to race as hard as they could and go for broke, and I just rolled around the bottom and tried to make the veteran decision,” he added. “It worked out, we moved forward and made a pretty cool highlight for the night, I feel like.”

– The Golobic family and the Matt Wood Racing team had one of the longest hauls – if not the longest – to get to Indiana Midget Week, with Shane Golobic and his brother Dustin trading off over a 35-hour drive from California to Indiana for the six-night sojourn.

In fact, Shane Golobic debuted a new paint scheme on his No. 17w midget for the week, with the blue-and-orange colors of NOS Energy Drink supplemented with white sections to differentiate Golobic’s machine from the similarly colored cars of both Clauson-Marshall Racing and RAMS Racing.

“We’ve gotten people talking about the car, that’s for sure,” said Golobic, the 2017 Indiana Midget Week points champion. “Some people like it and some people aren’t sold on it yet, but we wanted to stand out from the crowd. It was a long haul to get here and we’re just happy to be back in Indiana.”

Golobic finished sixth in Tuesday night’s feature, his first USAC national midget start of the season.

– One notable competitor in the open sprint car feature at Montpelier was Clarklake, Michigan’s Brian Ruhlman, who is perhaps best known for his exploits in dirt late model and modified racing.

Ruhlman is a five-time Eldora Speedway track champion and four-time titlist with the Sunoco American Late Model Series, but has recently acquired a non-winged sprint car and hopes to learn more about the unique style of racing that the class is renowned for.

Though he finished 14th in the 18-car field on Tuesday, Ruhlman carried a smile throughout the night.

“We’re just seeing what we can learn with this thing, because the driver definitely has a lot to figure out in order to get up to speed against the guys who have been doing this for a while,” Ruhlman said. “Our goal here was to turn laps and not tear anything up, and overall we were able to do that.

“There’s a definite learning curve, but that just comes with more seat time as you go along.”

– Indiana Midget Week continues Wednesday night at Gas City I-69 Speedway. Though the forecast was iffy for much of Tuesday, a storm front moved through overnight and has led to dropping chances of precipitation and improved optimism that the program will occur in its entirety at the quarter-mile oval.

BROWNSBURG, Ind. – This weekend’s NHRA Heartland Nationals marks national event No. 250 for Funny Car driver Matt Hagan.

At 36 years old, Hagan is considered one of the young guns in the world of professional drag racing, but with 11 years behind the wheel of a nitro-burning flopper, the two-time world champion’s racing resume reads like that of a seasoned veteran.

It’s only fitting Hagan reach this incredible milestone in America’s Heartland. When not wrestling his 11,000-horsepower Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat, Hagan spends his days manning his 2,100-acre cattle farm in Christiansburg, Va., where he raises more than 700 “momma” cows that produce calves for the market.

The father of four, who says he loves racing in Kansas because he ‘gets to talk farming at the ropes,’ is hands-on in every aspect – from growing feed to being able to handle every chore on the spread.

As he prepares for the 31st running of the Heartland Motorsports Park event, the “world’s fastest farmer” reflects on the years and the races leading up to his landmark weekend and provides a glimpse into where he sees himself in the future.

Q: What would you consider to be the pit and the peak of your career thus far?

MATT HAGAN: “One of the best moments was getting my first race win. Championships are unbelievable, obviously, but when you hit that very first milestone of qualifying the car and then winning that first round, and then winning the race, it’s amazing. Getting my very first NHRA Funny Car trophy in Houston (2010) really stands out to me. I got in the show on a pedal job. We qualified 14th, and I pedaled my ass off all weekend long and then ended up winning the race on a pedal job too. It was special because I felt like I really had to earn it.

“My lowest moment, well, there are two. My first fire when I was competing in another series, it was one of my first fires ever, that always stands out. It was so hot and so intense and I definitely kind of freaked out a bit. It was a scary feeling; you can’t see where you are at on the track, your legs are getting blistered because of the heat, and I just panicked. I wanted to just jump right out of the car, but it was still going probably 200-mph. People try and prepare you for those moments and tell you what to do, but until you’re in it and going through it yourself, it’s a whole different story. And then once you go through it, you look back and think ‘oh I should’ve done this,’ but at the time, you’re just reacting. I got the car safely stopped. It ended up burning to the ground, and we lost the race car. Something like that really puts everything in perspective.

“My other low was runnering-up on a championship. It was my second year here at DSR (2010), and I had a 38-point lead over John Force going into race day. I just had to go two rounds further than him, and I would’ve won the championship in my second year of driving a Funny Car. We went out first round, and John Force ended up winning the race and winning the championship. It was devastating, but we ended up going back the following year and winning the championship.”

Q: You have two NHRA Funny Car world championships under your belt (2011 and 2014), you notched 30 event wins earlier this season. What’s something on your bucket list that you’d still like to achieve?

MH: “I really don’t know. I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to accomplish a lot of goals that I had set. Racing has opened up so many doors for me. I don’t know that I really have a bucket list, but I’m open to new ideas and new ventures. Drag racing has allowed me to have the capital to grow my farm while being able to support my family from racing. And now farming has grown to support itself and the next thing you know, I have more than 2,000 acres and 700 momma cows, and it’s all paid for because I’ve been able to race. The racing stuff has allowed me to be able to do a lot of different things, and I hope that it continues to do so.”

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