Ireland forward coach Paul O'Connell - a former Lions captain and three-times a tourist as a player - had been widely expected to take charge of the Lions pack.

But with O'Connell out of the running, Farrell has turned to Dalziel. The former Glasgow coach will share forwards duties with Fogarty, with Easterby likely to run the defence.

Wigglesworth will be given responsibilities around skills and attack as Farrell looks to tap into England's best Six Nations performance in five years. England averaged five tries a game in the championship, up from 2.7 in the autumn.

Farrell will pick his playing squad on 8 May, with the Lions' first match against Argentina in Dublin on 20 June.

Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter says Ali Hepher's demotion from his role as head coach was not a "knee-jerk reaction" to the club's Premiership Rugby Cup final loss.

Hepher was replaced as head coach by forwards coach Rob Hunter last week, with Exeter enduring their worst season since being promoted to the top flight in 2010.

They have won just two Premiership matches all season, lost all their European Champions Cup ties and won just twice against top-flight sides in the cup before being thrashed 48-14 by Bath in the final earlier this month.

Hepher is acting as the club's interim backs and attack coach for the rest of this season before taking on a new role helping transition academy players into the first team set-up.

"One thing Ali had already indicated to me was that, if the opportunity arose, he would love to get involved in that transition group and get back to some pure coaching," Baxter told BBC Sport.

"But at the same time, if that opportunity didn't arise he was going to look for other opportunities.

"I just felt with the break coming out of the Premiership Cup, with the opportunity now to rebuild almost into next season and what we can achieve over the end part of this season, the time was right now."

Women's Six Nations: Wales v England

Venue: Principality Stadium, Cardiff Date: Saturday, 29 March Kick off: 16:45 GMT

Coverage: BBC One, BBC Radio Wales, Radio Cymru, BBC Sounds, the BBC Sport website and app, plus live text commentary, followed by report and reaction on the BBC Sport website and app.

Welsh strength and conditioning expert Aled Walters was confirmed as part of the Lions' wider support staff in January, along with analyst Vinny Hammond, who works alongside Walters in the Ireland camp.

David Nucifora, who was named as the Lions' performance manager at the same time, worked with Ireland for a decade before taking on a role with Scotland in 2024.

Easterby said that the draw of working with a unique set of players convinced him to accept Farrell's invitiation, rather than stay on with Ireland for their summer fixtures, expected to be against Georgia and Portugal.

"To tour as a player and now as a coach, knowing the group of players that we have the potential of working with, is something that I can't wait to get stuck into," he said.

"A Lions tour also gives you the opportunity to work with people you haven't before."

Farrell will pick his playing squad on 8 May and the Lions will play Argentina in Dublin on 20 June, before their first game on Australian soil against Western Force on 28 June.

The first Test against the Wallabies will take place on 19 July in Brisbane, with the series continuing in Melbourne and Sydney over the following two weeks.

The Wallabies are ranked eighth in the world, below Ireland, England and Scotland.

However, they claimed an impressive victory over England at Twickenham during their recent autumn tour of the northern hemisphere and their four regional sides made a strong start to their Super Rugby Pacific campaigns.

Tickets for the series have sold fast with more than 500,000 people expected to watch the nine matches across six Australian cities. The second Test in Melbourne, staged at the MCG, is likely to be the largest ever crowd for a Lions Test with the venue capable of holding more than 100,000 spectators.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Tage Thompson scored the go-ahead goal 1:23 into the third period, and Lindy Ruff became the NHL's second coach to win 600 games with one franchise in the Buffalo Sabres' 3-2 win over the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday night.

Jack Quinn and Jacob Bernard-Docker also scored for Buffalo, and James Reimer stopped 30 shots in winning consecutive starts for the first time this season. Ruff is in the first season of his second stint in Buffalo, and improved his record with the franchise to 600-467-90 with 78 ties.

"I really wasn't aware of it. But obviously, it feels good," Ruff said. "Just to get the win tonight, it felt good. ... I've been fortunate, a lot of good people around me that have helped throughout the years. And [there's been] unbelievable fan support here in this building."

Ruff trails only Al Arbor, who won 740 games with the New York Islanders.

Brady Tkachuk and David Perron scored power-play goals for the Senators. Anton Forsberg stopped 21 shots in an outing the Senators blew two one-goal leads.

"There were two things early that hurt us," Ruff said. "The penalties hurt us. And we lost almost every faceoff. So, we were chasing the puck. ... But it was a game that we needed some good saves, and we got them. And at the same time, our guys played a great third period."

Meanwhile, the Senators squandered a chance against the Eastern Conference's last-place team to further secure their bid to end a seven-year playoff drought.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Alex Ovechkin scored the 889th goal of his career Tuesday night and is now six goals away from breaking Wayne Gretzky's NHL record.

Ovechkin posted the tying goal in the third period to help the Washington Capitals force overtime and gain a point. The Winnipeg Jets won 3-2 in the extra session.

It has been a remarkable run this season for the East-leading Capitals and Ovechkin, who entered the campaign 42 goals short of breaking a record that long seemed unapproachable. He sat out 16 games because of a broken leg but resumed his pursuit in December.

The 39-year-old Russian, in his 20th NHL season, took a pass from linemate Aliaksei Protas on Tuesday night and fired a wrist shot past Vezina Trophy front-runner Connor Hellebuyck to tie the score.

Ovechkin, named the game's third star, had four shots on net and finished with 17:42 time on ice across 19 shifts.

"Everyone do a great job and the puck came to [Protas] and he finds me," Ovechkin said. "It was a pretty good play by everybody."

Coach Spencer Carbery called it "a big play in a big moment to get that game tied." It's becoming his job to find the best situations to get Ovechkin in position to score.

"He obviously wants to be out there, and then I just manage it with certain matchups and certain situations," Carbery said. "That's something him and I have talked about and we sort of work through, given the situation and the circumstance of the game."

Ovechkin has 36 goals this season and is on track to reach 40 for a 14th time, the most in league history, despite his injury absence. The spotlight will continue to get brighter as he inches closer to Gretzky.

"It is what it is," Ovechkin said. "It's a fun time, obviously, but yeah, you just have to enjoy it. It's a special moment, obviously. Everybody's watching. Everybody's paying attention to that."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Brazil were humiliated 4-1 by bitter rivals Argentina in South American World Cup qualifiers on Tuesday as the pressure mounted on manager Dorival Jr after his side were comprehensively outplayed and fortunate not to lose by more.

After edging Colombia 2-1 at home on Thursday, Brazil came crashing back to earth against the world champions, who started the rout with a close-range strike by Julián Álvarez four minutes after kick-off.

Álvarez took a through pass from Thiago Almada in his stride and evaded two defenders before beating the advancing goalkeeper Bento with a gentle touch to his right.

"This is a team victory. We played as a team, and that's why we were able to minimize Brazil," Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni said.

"I really don't know if it's our greatest victory, we've played great games and doing great things in them. A team has to know what to do in different situations, and tonight, the boys did great."

A 0-0 draw between Uruguay and Bolivia earlier on Tuesday had sealed Argentina's spot at the 2026 World Cup as they became the first South American team to qualify for the tournament in North America.

Even without the injured Lionel Messi and Lautaro Martinez Argentina were streets ahead of their rivals and they did not have to wait long to extend their lead with Enzo Fernández making it 2-0 in the 12th minute.

A terrific team goal saw Rodrigo de Paul, Almada and Álvarez combine before Fernandez finished off Nahuel Molina's low cross at the far post.

Argentina were in full control and passing the ball around to chants of "Ole" from a sold-out crowd at the Monumental Stadium in Buenos Aires when Brazil pulled one back, a mistake from defender Cristian Romero gifting Matheus Cunha a goal in the 26th minute.

But Argentina restored their two-goal lead in the 37th minute through Alexis Mac Allister, who fired home from a Fernandez cross following another superb team move.

Argentina, who have not lost to Brazil in six years, wasted several chances to extend their lead before substitute Giuliano Simeone wrapped up the scoring in the 71st minute, handing Brazil their heaviest defeat in a World Cup qualifier.

"Our plan for today's match didn't work from the first minute. I have to recognise what happened, how our rival outplayed us and they deservedly got the victory," Brazil coach Dorival Junior said after the match.

"It's a significant defeat and we are in a complicated, difficult process. But I have no doubt that we'll find a way out."

Argentina top the South American standings with 31 points from 14 matches, 17 points clear of seventh-placed Bolívia, who currently hold the spot for the international playoffs.

Brazil are fourth on 21 points.

"All of us can do better than this. It isn't only about Dorival," Brazil captain Marquinhos said.

"This is not only the coach's fault, it is the players too. We need to have our heads in the right place. They (Argentina) also had tough times before and they overcame it. We can do it too."

Vinícius Júnior has called for Brazil to push the reset button following their alarming 4-1 defeat at Argentina in Tuesday's World Cup qualifier.

Playing without injured captain Lionel Messi, Argentina outplayed Brazil at the Monumental stadium in Buenos Aires, with the visitors having just one shot on target.

"Everyone did badly, we played badly, and Argentina played an excellent game, with their fans," Vinícius told reporters. "We have to rethink everything we've been doing, because the pressure will come, the people want us to win.

"The World Cup is only a year away and I've already played in a World Cup and I don't want to lose again. I think we have to do a lot of different things and take the good things we're doing in qualifying to build a squad. Everyone knows how difficult it is to play in this kit, but we have to improve, keep our heads up, because we're Brazilians and we never give up. We're going to qualify for the World Cup and try to do everything for our country."

Tuesday's loss was Brazil's fifth defeat in qualifying and their first since a 1-0 setback at Paraguay in September.

The outcome left Dorival Júnior's side fourth in the South American qualifying group, 10 points adrift of leaders Argentina, who have already sealed a spot at the 2026 World Cup.

"Argentina have been working together for a long time," Vinícius said. "[They have] a lot of players that have played together for a long time in the national team, they won the last World Cup, they have the confidence. We're trying to find our way of playing, to win the fans' confidence, but it's a long job. We have to keep improving."

Argentina's Julián Álvarez said Raphinha's comments ahead of the game acted as an incentive.

Outstanding for Barcelona this season, Raphinha spiced up the South American clásico by saying "We'll beat them up!" in an interview with Brazil great Romário ahead of the match.

"Obviously that way of talking [by Raphinha] adds flavour to the game in a match like this," Alvarez told TyC Sports. "But with our humility and hard work, we played a great game and we gave them the runaround."

Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano "Dibu" Martínez said Raphinha spoke too soon.

"I don't understand those types of players that like to speak before a game," Martinez told TyC Sports. "I was always taught to speak after a game or do the talking on the pitch. It serves us. Let's hope they continue to speak about us as it lights up the dynamite."

Dorival took full responsibility for his team's poor showing on Tuesday but believes he can turn things around.

"I have no doubt that we will find a way," he said. "In all my years and experience in football, this is perhaps the most delicate moment.

"I never give up and I have always achieved important goals in the clubs I have managed.

"No one expected what we saw, and the responsibility is entirely mine. The Argentina team was superior in every way. I even apologize to the Brazilian fans, because the expectations were very different from what we saw, from what we presented."

Brazil's Football Confederation (CBF) president Ednaldo Rodrigues did not speak to the media after the game. Amid mounting pressure on Dorival, reports in Brazil claim long-time target Carlo Ancelotti is being considered again by the CBF as a candidate for the hot seat should Dorival be dismissed in the coming months.

Ancelotti, who has been a target of the CBF since Tite stepped down as Brazil coach in December 2022, has a contract with Real Madrid until June 2026.

Another candidate that is reportedly being considered is Flamengo coach Filipe Luis.

Since Dorival took command of the national team in January 2024, Brazil have won seven, drawn four and lost two of their 16 games.

The Canarinha were eliminated in the quarterfinals of the Copa América by Uruguay, a tournament that was won by Argentina.

Brazil are back in action in June when they visit Ecuador and host Paraguay in their next World Cup qualifiers.

Bayern Munich defender Alphonso Davies suffered an ACL tear in his right knee while on international duty with Canada and will be out for several months, the Bundesliga club said on Wednesday.

Davies was forced off in the 12th minute of Canada's 2-1 win over the United States in the Concacaf Nations League third-place playoff on Sunday. The 24-year-old left-back will miss the rest of the season.

"Unfortunately, during international breaks there's always the risk that players will return injured -- this time it's hit us particularly hard," Bayern's director of sport Max Eberl said in a statement, which added that Davies faces months out of action.

In another blow to Bayern's backline, defender Dayot Upamecano has also been ruled out for several weeks with a knee injury, the club said, after the 26-year-old France international was diagnosed with loose joints in his left knee.

"The absences of Alphonso Davies and Dayot Upamecano are a heavy blow for Bayern," Eberl added.

"Phonzy will get all the support he needs on his way back. We will also follow Upa closely in the coming weeks and assume that he will be available again soon. Our squad is strong and will compensate for these absences."

League leaders Bayern hold a six-point lead over second-placed Bayer Leverkusen.

Vincent Kompany's side host St Pauli in the Bundesliga on Saturday before welcoming Serie A leaders Inter Milan for the first leg of their Champions League quarterfinal on April 8.