Israel Folau has been found guilty of a "high level breach" of Rugby Australia's player code of conduct after he said "hell awaits" gay people in a social media post.

A three-person panel who presided over his hearing will now consider what punishment the 30-year-old will face.

His RA contract was terminated in April but he requested a hearing.

The Waratahs full-back, contracted with RA until 2022, escaped punishment for similar comments last year.

The panel will take written submissions from both parties before deciding Folau's sanction.

Folau - who has won 73 caps and was expected to play at this year's World Cup in Japan - gave evidence on Saturday, with RA chief executive Raelene Castle and Waratahs chief executive Andrew Hore also appearing before the panel.

Wallabies coach Michael Cheika has said Folau is unlikely to be selected for Australia again.

In addition to his rugby union career, Folau has also played professional rugby league and Australian rules football.

In April, Australian rugby league's governing body ruled out Folau returning to the NRL.

British and Irish Lions lock Richie Gray and Worcester fly-half Duncan Weir have been left out of Scotland's 42-man Rugby World Cup training squad.

English-born centre Rory Hutchinson earns a first call-up by coach Gregor Townsend after an impressive season with Northampton Saints.

Glasgow Warriors hooker Grant Stewart and Scarlets forward Blade Thomson, both also uncapped, are recalled.

Edinburgh back-row John Barclay is included as he eyes a third finals.

A forward and back will be added as Townsend gives players the chance to "play their way into the group", which will eventually be cut to a 31-man group heading to the finals in Japan.

Townsend said: "We made a conscious decision to keep squad numbers low, which enables us to do more work with those most likely to be on the plane to Japan.

"There are of course a number of very good players who have missed out - players who have been unlucky with injuries this year or haven't hit form at the right time - while others are unlucky to lose out on some very close decisions."

Gray, capped 62 times for Scotland, does not make the squad despite the 29-year-old having recovered from a lengthy back injury to feature for European semi-finalists and French league leaders Toulouse.

The 27-year-old Weir has played 27 times for his country but is also not included along with centre Alex Dunbar, the 30-cap 29-year-old having been on loan to Newcastle Falcons from Glasgow Warriors.

Pro14 title-chasing Glasgow contribute 17 players to the training squad, while Edinburgh have 13.

Just under half - 14 - of those named featured in the 31-man squad that reached the quarter-final of the 2015 tournament in England.

Townsend will initially work in smaller groups to accommodate post-season breaks and players involved in the knockout stages of domestic or European Cup competition.

The majority of players will then be given three weeks off and will return from mid-June to intensify pre-season preparations in Edinburgh.

There will be three pre-season residential camps in Scotland and a hot weather camp in Portugal before four home-and-away summer Test matches against Georgia and France in August and early September.

"As it's likely to be hot and humid during the tournament, our warm-weather training camps in Portugal and Nagasaki, as well two Test matches in the heat of Nice and Tbilisi, should be invaluable," Townsend added.

Scotland training squad

Forwards

John Barclay (Edinburgh), Simon Berghan (Edinburgh), Jamie Bhatti (Glasgow Warriors), Magnus Bradbury (Edinburgh), Fraser Brown (Glasgow Warriors), Allan Dell (Edinburgh), Matt Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors), Zander Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors), Grant Gilchrist (Edinburgh), Gary Graham (Newcastle Falcons), Jonny Gray (Glasgow Warriors), Stuart McInally (Edinburgh), Willem Nel (Edinburgh), Gordon Reid (London Irish), Jamie Ritchie (Edinburgh), Sam Skinner (Exeter Chiefs), Grant Stewart (Glasgow Warriors), Josh Strauss (Sale Sharks), Blade Thomson (Scarlets), Ben Toolis (Edinburgh), George Turner (Glasgow Warriors), Hamish Watson (Edinburgh), Ryan Wilson (Glasgow Warriors).

Backs

Darcy Graham (Edinburgh), Nick Grigg (Glasgow Warriors), Chris Harris (Newcastle Falcons), Adam Hastings (Glasgow Warriors), Stuart Hogg (Glasgow Warriors), George Horne (Glasgow Warriors), Pete Horne (Glasgow Warriors), Rory Hutchinson (Northampton Saints), Huw Jones (Glasgow Warriors), Sam Johnson (Glasgow Warriors), Blair Kinghorn (Edinburgh), Greig Laidlaw (Clermont Auvergne), Sean Maitland (Saracens), Byron McGuigan (Sale Sharks), Ali Price (Glasgow Warriors), Henry Pyrgos (Edinburgh), Finn Russell (Racing 92), Tommy Seymour (Glasgow Warriors), Duncan Taylor (Saracens).

England back row James Haskell is to retire at the end of the season.

The 34-year-old, who has won 77 caps and played in the past two World Cups, has struggled with ankle and toe problems with Northampton this season.

He joined Wasps in 2002 and spent seven years with the club before moving to Stade Francais, the Ricoh Black Rams in Japan and Super Rugby's Highlanders.

Haskell returned to Wasps in 2013 and moved to Saints last summer, but has only played four times this season.

"I have loved every minute of my career in rugby and feel very privileged to have played with and against some exceptional players," said Haskell, who also toured with the British and Irish Lions to New Zealand in 2017.

"This next chapter was supposed to go a very different way, however that is the nature of professional sport. I've never spent so much time injured in my entire career, but I'm doing everything I can to help the squad here until my contract ends.

"Retiring is obviously a really difficult decision for me to make; professional rugby has been the centre of my life for such a long time now and while it's weird to imagine living without it, I look to the future with huge excitement."

'One of the game's great characters'

Haskell won three Six Nations titles with England and was part of the team that won the Grand Slam in 2016 before starring in the side that whitewashed Australia on tour that summer.

He played in England's 2011 World Cup quarter-final loss to France and was part of the Wasps side that won the 2007 Heineken Cup final.

England head coach Eddie Jones said: "It was a privilege to coach him, but also great fun. He's what I'd describe as a glue player - someone who always tries to bring a squad together.

"His tour to Australia in 2016 sticks in my mind. He was absolutely outstanding on that tour, amazingly physical, uncompromising and just totally dominant.

"Despite injuries preventing him from achieving his goals this season, he should be remembered for a great career and as someone who never gave less than 100% for club and country.

"Not only a superb player, but also one of the game's great characters; rugby will be poorer without the old fella."

Analysis

BBC rugby union correspondent Chris Jones

Haskell's dream was to bow out after a successful Rugby World Cup in Japan, but - as he acknowledges - sport doesn't always do fairytales.

Either way he can reflect on an outstanding career, where he not only achieved a huge amount on the pitch, but broadened his horizons off it.

And while as an international player he perhaps didn't have the consistency of say a Richard Hill, Haskell did produce some remarkable displays at the highest level.

His individual performances against Wales in Cardiff in 2015, and in Australia a year later, will go down in English rugby folklore.

BARTLETT, Tenn. – Sides Motorsports will have a two-car team at Eldora Speedway this weekend.

Veteran Tim Kaeding is joining Jason Sides during the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series doubleheader at the high-banked oval on Friday and Saturday.

“I don’t think TK’s been there in a while so it’ll be fun to watch him,” Sides said. “It helps me because it’s another driver that can talk about what we need to do. I think it’s good to have two guys bouncing ideas off each other.”

Sides has two World of Outlaws wins at Eldora Speedway. He won the Kings Royal in 2004 and was victorious during a World of Outlaws show in 2009.

“I figure with all the weather the track will be somewhat wetter than normal, which could be good,” he said. “There might be a top and a bottom.”

World of Outlaws races were rained out last weekend at Riverside Int’l Speedway in West Memphis, Ark., and at Tri-State Speedway in Haubstadt, Ind.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Only a few days remain until the opening round of the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship, sanctioned by AMA Pro Racing, and MX Sports Pro Racing has announced that a record total of prize money and contingency will be on the line.

Support from the championship’s six competing manufacturers has surpassed $6 million, providing an unprecedented level of funding for American motocross.

“The unwavering commitment from our manufacturers has helped the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship reach an all-time level of contingency support, which will only serve to benefit the hundreds of riders that will contest the Nationals this summer,” said Davey Coombs, President of MX Sports Pro Racing. “The OEMs play a crucial role in elevating the global influence of American motocross, and Pro Motocross provides a platform for manufacturers to showcase their off-road endeavors. Our record sum is also a welcome indication of the overall health of the motorcycle industry.”

Manufacturer participation in the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship is anchored by the factory and factory-supported efforts of Honda, Husqvarna, Kawasaki, KTM, Suzuki, and Yamaha. Each respective brand’s contingency contribution will be up for grabs across the 40-rider fields in both the 450 Class and 250 Class, who will also compete for nearly $1 million in pro purse money.

Reigning back-to-back 450 Class champion Eli Tomac of Monster Energy Kawasaki will look to join elite company in his quest for a three-peat, while a wide-open field of 250 Class competitors will each look to claim a vacant title, which would serve as the first for any of these riders. It all kicks off on Saturday, May 18, with the Bell Helmets Hangtown Motocross Classic, followed by a summer-long quest highlighted by visits to the most legendary and iconic racetracks in the country, from which a pair of champions will emerge at the Ironman National on Saturday, Aug. 24.

WELCOME, N.C. – Tame the Beast, a men’s grooming product brand, will back Tyler Reddick when he makes his second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series start this weekend at Kansas Speedway.

Tame the Beast encourages men to embrace their inner beast with their uniquely masculine grooming products. Products include a variety of scents and purposes, such as the Extreme Yawp Hair, Beard & Body Wash, Nutt Butter, and Caffeine Conditioner. The Nashville, Tenn.-based company uses all-natural, intense botanicals, including eucalyptus, ginseng, and pomegranate, in all of their products.

“We’re thrilled to support Tyler,” said John Cascarano, founder of Tame the Beast. “We’re all about helping men perform at their peak, and clearly Tyler is racing at the top of his game.”

Reddick made his NASCAR Cup Series debut earlier this year in the Daytona 500, finishing 27th after being caught up in a wreck late in the race. The defending NASCAR Xfinity Series champion is currently leading the points in the Xfinity Series season, capturing one win, two pole awards, eight top-five and nine top-10 finishes so far this year.

Tame the Beast, whose motto is to groom boldly, has found a great match in Reddick, who is known for his aggressive driving style and giving each lap everything he’s got.

“Tame the Beast is an edgy, bold brand that’s making noise in the men’s grooming industry,” said Reddick. “I think that fits well with my driving style and the attitude of my RCR team this season. We’re out there every weekend, going hard to get every spot we can and often driving on the edge to get it. I’m excited to be partnering with Tame the Beast and helping spread their message to groom boldly.”

This will be Reddick’s first Kansas Speedway start in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. The 22-year-old driver has two starts at the 1.5-mile speedway in the Xfinity Series, collecting one pole and two top-five finishes.

MOORESVILLE, N.C. – OutWest Express, a provider of transportation services in the Southwest, will join Front Row Motorsports and Matt Tifft for the Digital Ally 400 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race this weekend at Kansas Speedway.

Headquartered in El Paso, Texas, OutWest Express provides cost-effective and dependable transportation services, including 24-hour dispatch, expedited freight transit and company-owned tractors and trailers. Featuring performance-based engine monitoring systems and aerodynamic equipment designed to promote fuel efficiency, OutWest Express’s top-of-the-line fleet is ready and well-equipped for all types of transportation situations.

“We are excited to team up with Matt Tifft and Front Row Motorsports this weekend at Kansas Speedway,” said Zachary Chilson, VP of OutWest Express. “Kansas City is a major hub for our fleet and we are proud to provide stable job opportunities to the community. Teaming up with the 36 car is a great way to show NASCAR fans across the country who we are and what we can do.”

“It’s always great to team up with a new partner, especially a company like OutWest Express, whose core values resonate so well with the NASCAR fanbase,” said Tifft. “I’m proud to have them on the car this weekend and I’m glad we can help carry their message on track.”

DENVER -- Desperation is typically the emotional fuel for a team facing elimination from the Stanley Cup playoffs.

While the Colorado Avalanche certainly burned through their share of it during their Game 6 overtime win over the San Jose Sharks on Monday, the highest octane available in forcing a Game 7 was pure frustration.

Witness J.T. Compher.

Or, more to the point, witness the trash can back at the Shark Tank in San Jose that Compher bludgeoned with his stick after their Game 5 loss on Saturday night. The sound of his lumber denting the metal receptacle was so loud that it startled arena workers, and it echoed the frustration he and the Avalanche had after that defeat.

In Game 6, that frustration fueled what coach Jared Bednar said was the best game Compher's played in the postseason: two goals and an assist on Tyson Jost's opening goal, the kind of performance from their supporting cast that the Avalanche have sought all series.

"I think I felt good right away. Was able to play physically right away. It's always fun playing with this group. We believe we have what it takes," Compher said.

Captain Gabriel Landeskog said whatever line Compher was on in Game 6 was a difference-maker all game.

"It's deflating to take the lead and then give it up three times. But they [were] just coming and coming. And even when they weren't scoring, they were creating chances," Landeskog said.

Their effort helped to send this game back to San Jose.

Has he thought about that poor trash can since the incident?

"No. I don't care. It's not anything I've put any thought into," Compher said. "We're going to a Game 7. It's a huge opportunity for this team, not only for the future but for the present."

Witness Landeskog.

The Avalanche star has been his own harshest critic. He had been held scoreless in four of five games against San Jose after scoring in four straight games against Calgary in Colorado's opening-round win. Those frustrations continued in Game 6 and included the defensive end of the ice: Landeskog was on for all three of the Sharks goals that tied the game thrice.

The apex of that frustration: San Jose's fluky goal with 2 minutes, 26 seconds left in regulation, as Marc-Edouard Vlasic's shot was deflected into the net by Avalanche defenseman Nikita Zadorov's skate. As the Sharks began to celebrate, a stumbling Timo Meier fell into Landeskog, knocking him to the ice. He got up and landed a cross-check to Meier that probably would have earned a penalty were it not the waning moments of a tied Game 6 in the playoffs.

In the intermission before overtime, Landeskog walked over to goalie Philipp Grubauer, acknowledging that his line was responsible for the tied game. Grubauer recalled Landeskog vowing that he'd scored a goal in overtime as penance.

"And he got one," said the goalie.

Landeskog started the play with a wicked forecheck on Erik Karlsson, knocking his helmet off. The Sharks' clearing attempt was intercepted by rookie defenseman Cale Makar, who snapped a pass that connected with Landeskog's stick blade. With Karlsson on him, the puck bounced ahead and Landeskog knocked it past Martin Jones for the first overtime playoff goal of his career.

The frustration, for a moment, had subsided.

"I haven't been happy with my offensive output this time of year. I haven't been dangerous enough. I haven't been a threat enough. It was nice to get this one tonight and hopefully we can build off of it," Landeskog said. "You just have to instill that doubt on the other side. And I doubt the last thing they wanted to do was play another one at home in San Jose."

Bednar said the determination of players like Compher and Landeskog personified their effort in Game 6, and how the Avalanche as a team pushed through their frustrations.

"It can be tough out there. It's tight checking. Not a lot of room to move. The officials are letting both teams play. There's a little bit more clutch and grab, hitting and hooking, holding ... all the things you'd expect. You have to fight through it. And that's what made me proud about my team tonight," he said.

This is the first Game 7 for the Avalanche since 2014, as they attempt to qualify for the Western Conference final for the first time since 2002. That year they were second overall in the conference and winners of their division. This season, they were eighth in the West and fifth in the Central Division.

"You want to give it the credit it deserves as a Game 7. But you don't want to blow it out of proportion, and all of a sudden if becomes this big monster. This big mountain we have to climb," Landeskog said.

"But it's a huge step for our team. We're 60 minutes away from the Western Conference final. Who would have thought before the series? Whoever thought before the season?"

In October, Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Dougie Hamilton walked into a barbershop to get a haircut.

"Do you have an appointment?" the receptionist asked. Hamilton did not.

"So I said, 'Screw it, I'm not getting a haircut,'" Hamilton said. "And that's how I ended up like this."

This -- the playoff version of Hamilton -- is a familiar hockey look: The strawberry blond hair Hamilton has been growing out since October rests in a curly nest down the back of his neck. He has since given his 'do some upkeep, and the top and sides of his head are cropped.

In pop-culture parlance: It's business in the front, party in the back. At the rink, it's yet another mullet.

The hairstyle was rampant in the 1980s, and one of the NHL's all-time greats, Jaromir Jagr, ushered the cut through the '90s into the 2000s. Though the style has died down, it's not quite extinct, with several mullets sprouting up in the league from time to time. This season alone, Hamilton, Buffalo's Jeff Skinner and Columbus' Ryan Dzingel have all sported the look.

But hockey culture isn't just obsessed with the mullet. It's all hair, really. The NHL fetishizes playoff beards -- and the San Jose Sharks' roster features two of the most epic bushels of all time, belonging to Brent Burns and Joe Thornton -- as well as the teenagers who can only grow peach fuzz. "Flow" is a common term in hockey vernacular. There's even more niche, hockey-specific words like "lettuce" or "salad" or "chop." In Minnesota, the high school hockey tournament now doubles as a hair show, with teenagers spending each spring one-upping each other with their locks, and the swagger with which they present them.

"I have no idea what the crazy obsession with hair is about," says Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin. "I think hockey players like to have pretty good style. My best guess is, a lot of other leagues show it with their clothes. Hockey players like to do it with their hair -- facial hair, or how it's coming out of their helmet."

Indeed, compare the NHL to the NBA, which shares the same 82-game schedule and season. When NBA players arrive at the arena, some look like they could be arriving for New York fashion week, with thousands of dollars worth of designer shoes, suits, hats, jewelry and even handbags (though they like to call them dopp kits). In the NHL? Consider when Toronto Maple Leafs star Auston Matthews showed up at an April playoff game with a high-brow look, he was ridiculed on social media.

Anyway, back to the hair. "It's been going on for a long time, and it definitely feels more prevalent in hockey than other sports," surmises Washington Capitals defenseman Brooks Orpik. "Now, I think the excuse would be social media. There's cameras everywhere, so guys are more focused on the way they look."

Adds Boston Bruins defenseman Torey Krug: "We have to wear a helmet at all times. If the helmet ever falls off, or if we're away from the rink, we want to be able to express ourselves in some way. That's how we kind of make our faces known."

When Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Markus Nutivaara first arrived in North America from his native Finland, he was shocked to find something in the locker rooms he had never seen before: hair dryers.

"You would be laughed at in Finland if you used one of those," Nutivaara says. "In Finland, hockey players are more like cavemen. In Sweden, it's the complete opposite."

Perhaps the most famous hair in the NHL belongs to a Swede: New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist. The 37-year-old is known for his perfectly coiffed locks. So much so that he is the spokesperson for Head & Shoulders in Sweden, having done several commercials for the company:

View this post on Instagram

"Den där schampokillen" träffar på @cissiforss... ? ? #HenrikLundqvist #NYR #NYRangers #HenkeLundqvist

A post shared by Hockeysverige Official (@hockeysverige_se) on Mar 27, 2019 at 4:18am PDT

According to Swedish hockey journalist Uffe Bodin, many in Sweden know Lundqvist as much for being "the shampoo guy" as he is for his hockey.

It felt fitting to ask "the shampoo guy" why he believed the mullet fell largely out of favor.

"Like any other trend, it comes and goes," Lundqvist responded. "It will be back. The question is when."

There have been touchstone moments for the mullet in hockey history, and one of the most recent examples was when Chicago Blackhawks winger Patrick Kane sported one for his team's 2010 Stanley Cup run. To this day, high school hockey players in the Chicago area cut their hair into mullets at state tournament time to look like Kane, and many visit Carmelo Preiti, the hairdresser who is responsible for Kane's cut:

Even tho 88s last mullet was in 2015 SCF Im still receiving high school kids going into hockey playoffs wanting the Kane mullet. It's great they're growing the hair long all year to get the kane mullet for playoffs.What a great tradition 88 started for the young ones #mulletmania

— Carmelo (@carmelo_p) February 12, 2019

"Me and Patrick Sharp had talked about doing it for the 2010 playoffs," Kane says. "After our regular season ended, we both went to get it done. I showed up at the rink the next day with my mullet, and he showed up with his regular haircut -- he got it all chopped off. His reasoning was that his dad would be mad at him if he saw him on national TV like that."

Many credit Kane with reinvigorating the tradition. Explains Bruins defenseman Steven Kampfer: "In 2011, when we were going on a run, we were like, 'Somebody has to have a mullet because Kane had it last year, so someone has to get it done.'" Then-teammate Shawn Thornton ran a program called Cuts for a Cause and, because defenseman Adam McQuaid was the player on the team with the longest hair, he was sacrificed as the volunteer.

"Across the board, hockey players are pretty superstitions," Washington Capitals winger T.J. Oshie says. "If it's something that started back in the day, that's probably why it's still here."

The playoff beard is the biggest example of this. The itchy but celebratory tradition dates back to the New York Islanders' dynasty of the early '80s and has become a fixation in playoff locker rooms ever since.

Non-mulletted long hair is making a comeback, too. (Or really, it never went away.) "Erik Karlsson can pull off the long hair. [Brock Boeser] has the shorter flow, he knows how to maintain it," Kampfer says. "But then you have some guys and you're like, 'Dude, cut your hair.'"

As to how it affects a player on the ice, Kane wondered if the shaved sides of his head would make him more aerodynamic but admitted it wasn't really the case. Kampfer grew his hair to shoulder-length in junior hockey. It's a look he very much regrets and cringes when he talks about.

"In juniors, that was the thing. Long hair -- that's when you knew you were a hockey player," Kampfer says. "When I look at pictures now, I'm like, 'What was I doing? Why didn't my parents just take me to the barber?' When I had my long hair, I thought if I went fast I would kind of be like Mike Modano's jersey when he was going -- just flapping in the wind. It was kind of like that, I guess."

Sometimes players change up their hair for attention. Krug says in college, many players "grew out the cul-de-sac on purpose, which was pretty disgusting." In the first round of these playoffs, much attention was paid to Calgary Flames winger Sam Bennett's moustache -- which evoked Lanny McDonald's notorious look.

Of course, not everybody is on board, and the majority of players have generic, close crops. "Some guys care about their hair, the way they look," Capitals center Evgeny Kuznetsov says. "I don't really care about it. For me, it's not about hair. It's about what's inside."

Which brings us back to Hamilton. The Hurricanes defenseman says it took "some rough stages" to get to his eventual mullet, and not everyone was a fan. "I don't think the guys like it too much," Hamilton says. "But I've gotten some pretty good compliments. A couple girls, like waitresses and people around the arena, have said it's nice."

He does have some fans in the locker room.

"I'd never do it," Slavin says. "But I do think Dougie's is pretty solid. He has the personality to pull it off. He's a free spirit."