French Top 14 side Pau have confirmed the signing of Exeter fly-half Joe Simmonds on a two-year deal.

He was one of a host of long-serving players to leave Sandy Park this summer due to the new lower £5m salary cap.

His brother Sam Simmonds is joining Montpellier while fellow Chief Jack Nowell will move to La Rochelle.

Simmonds scored more than 1,000 points in 178 games for Exeter and was awarded an MBE in December 2020 after the club's domestic and European double.

"I've been playing in the Premiership for a while now and the Top 14 is a championship that attracts me a lot, just like the Pau club," Simmonds told the Pau website.

"I think I can bring leadership to the team by giving a lot on the pitch and helping young players grow. It's a great opportunity to be able to play in the Top 14."

France prop Mohamed Haouas has been sentenced to one year in jail for domestic abuse.

The incident is likely to end any hopes Haouas had of being picked for September's World Cup in France.

France's rugby federation called his behaviour "inadmissible and incompatible with representing our country at international level".

Montpellier's Haouas will launch an appeal and therefore remains free in the meantime, or could wear an electronic tag.

On hitting his wife in public, the 29-year-old told the court: "She has the right to smoke but the problem is that she lied to me.

"I said to myself that if she can lie about the cigarette, she could lie about other things."

The France international, who has 16 caps, was banned in March for four weeks after headbutting Scotland's Ben White in the Six Nations.

It was his second sending-off against Scotland in three years, after he punched Jamie Ritchie in 2020.

After spending his rugby career with Montpellier, Haouas was set to leave this summer after agreeing a three-year contract with Clermont.

However, the Top 14 club have said he "will not be able to wear the colours" following his guilty verdict.

In 2022, Haouas was handed an 18-month suspended sentence for his role in a series of burglaries in 2014.

Ulster hooker Tom Stewart is one of four uncapped players in Ireland's 42-strong summer training squad to prepare for the Rugby World Cup.

Ireland captain Johnny Sexton is named despite not playing since the Six Nations with a groin injury.

Munster's Keith Earls is in too, but club team-mate Joey Carbery and Ulster wing Robert Baloucoune miss out.

Jordan Larmour, Shane Daly, Jean Kleyn and Jeremy Loughman are also not in the squad.

Andy Farrell's side face Italy (5 August) and England (19 August) in Dublin, plus Samoa in France (26 August), before the squad will be reduced to 33 players for the World Cup.

The tournament starts in France in September, where Romania, Tonga, South Africa and Scotland await Ireland in Pool B.

Stewart, who set the record for the most tries in a United Rugby Championship season with 16, is one of seven Ulster players named, including Jacob Stockdale, who last played for Ireland in 2021.

Stuart McCloskey, Iain Henderson, Tom O'Toole, Rob Herring and Kieran Treadwell make up the contingent, however there is no place for Michael Lowry, Nick Timoney or James Hume.

Long-serving winger Earls, 35, is chosen after helping Munster to the URC title on Saturday and Jack Crowley, who can play at fly-half or centre, is preferred to Munster team-mate Carbery.

Ireland squad

Forwards: Ryan Baird, Finlay Bealham, Tadhg Beirne, Jack Conan, Gavin Coombes, Caelan Doris, Tadhg Furlong, Cian Healy, Iain Henderson, Rob Herring, Ronan Kelleher, Dave Kilcoyne, Joe McCarthy, Peter O'Mahony, Tom O'Toole, Andrew Porter, Cian Prendergast, James Ryan, Dan Sheehan, Tom Stewart, Kieran Treadwell, Josh van der Flier.

Backs: Bundee Aki, Caolin Blade, Ross Byrne, Craig Casey, Jack Crowley, Keith Earls, Ciaran Frawley, Jamison Gibson-Park, Mack Hansen, Robbie Henshaw, Hugo Keenan, James Lowe, Stuart McCloskey, Conor Murray, Calvin Nash, Jimmy O'Brien, Jamie Osborne, Garry Ringrose, Jonathan Sexton, Jacob Stockdale.

Alun Wyn Jones is set to play for Barbarians and Swansea when they meet at St Helen's on Wednesday (18:30 BST).

Jones, 37, and the world's most-capped player, led Barbarians to victory over a World XV last Sunday.

"You'll probably see him in an All Whites jersey in the second half," said Mulvihill.

"He might lead the Swansea team out at half-time.

"I was still taken aback that he wanted to play. He said 'it's in my parish and I want to play against my team'."

Mulvihill has taken the Barbarians reins after compatriot and Wallabies coach Eddie Jones guided the invitational team to victory at Twickenham on Sunday.

That game marked Jones' first Barbarians appearance, after 158 Wales caps and 12 more for the British and Irish Lions.

The accolade came in the wake of Jones retiring from international rugby four months before the 2023 World Cup.

Mulvihill expects Alun Wyn Jones to continue his club career, with Jones' Ospreys contract due to expire later this year.

"I don't think it's going to be his sign-off, he's got a few miles to go yet," said Mulvihill as he echoed Jones' thoughts.

"He's done everything in the game for Wales and the British and Irish Lions, 17 years as a professional Test player. He's massive, people around the world know who Al is."

Barbarians: Damien Hoyland; Tom Howe, Rey Lee-Lo, Billy Twelvetrees; Alex Wootton; Stephen Shingler, Lewis Jones; Oli Kebble, Kirby Myhill, Enrique Pieretto, Bradley Davies, Alun Wyn Jones, Dan Lydiate, Olly Robinson, Sione Vailanu.

Replacements: Elvis Taione, D'Arcy Rae, Murray McCallum, Matthew Screech, Sam Cross, Harri Morgan, Lloyd Williams, Billy Searle.

The Washington Capitals named Spencer Carbery as their new head coach on Tuesday.

Carbery, 41, will receive a four-year deal, a source told ESPN.

Carbery was one of the buzziest names on the coaching circuit, most recently serving as an assistant coach with the Toronto Maple Leafs and running their power play. He now returns to the Capitals organization, where he came up through the ranks coaching for its ECHL and AHL affiliates.

Sportsnet was first to report Carbery's hiring.

The Capitals parted with veteran coach Peter Laviolette this offseason after missing the playoffs for the first time in a decade. Laviolette's contract was not renewed after three seasons with the team; he has since interviewed for other vacancies in the Metropolitan Division, including with the New York Rangers.

Capitals owner Ted Leonsis has promised captain Alex Ovechkin that the team will continue to chase Stanley Cups while he chases the NHL's all-time scoring record, though general manager Brian MacLellan has begun engineering a retool so the team can get younger.

The Capitals lost 440 man games to injury last season.

In eight years as a head coach at the pro level, Carbery's teams have finished below .500 just once. His best work yet was engineering a 17-game point streak in 2018-19 that took the AHL Hershey Bears from last place to the playoffs. He has been a quick riser after winning ECHL Coach of the Year (2014) and AHL Coach of the Year (2021). Washington wanted to keep him on, but Carbery took an assistant job with the Maple Leafs in 2021. Since Carbery took over running the power play, Toronto has the league's second-best man-up unit (behind Edmonton).

The Nashville Predators are making a change behind the bench, hiring Andrew Brunette to replace John Hynes as head coach, sources told ESPN's Kevin Weekes on Tuesday.

An official announcement is expected Tuesday afternoon.

Hynes spent part of four seasons with the Predators after replacing outgoing coach Peter Laviolette on Jan. 7, 2020. Nashville reached the playoffs in Hynes' first two full seasons, losing in the first round both times. The Predators failed to qualify for the postseason this season -- a first since 2014 -- after an injury-plagued 42-32-8 campaign.

Hynes leaves the organization with an overall mark of 134-96-18.

This will be the first head-coaching job for Brunette since he was named interim coach of the Florida Panthers on Oct. 28, 2021. Brunette was an assistant on Joel Quenneville's staff there and was promoted to replace his boss after Quenneville resigned amid fallout from the Chicago Blackhawks' Kyle Beach lawsuit.

Brunette guided the Panthers to the President's Trophy as the NHL's top regular-season club with a franchise-best 51 wins and 108 points. The Panthers' luck didn't carry into the playoffs, though, and they were jettisoned in a second-round sweep by Tampa Bay.

Florida general manager Bill Zito ultimately did not remove the interim tag from Brunette, instead hiring Paul Maurice as the Panthers' next full-time coach. Brunette moved on to an assistant role with the New Jersey Devils for the 2022-23 season.

Brunette is back in familiar territory with Nashville. A veteran skater of a 1,110 NHL games, he spent the 1998-99 season with the Predators and scored the first goal in the expansion team's history.

The decision to switch coaches also marks the first big move involving incoming Nashville general manager Barry Trotz, who will step in to replace David Poile when the longtime GM officially retires in July.

DALLAS -- The Clarence S. Campbell Bowl was placed on a black tablecloth adorned with NHL logos, glistening under the arena lights. It was presented to the Vegas Golden Knights, who eliminated the Dallas Stars in Game 6 of the Western Conference finals Monday night to advance to the Stanley Cup Final.

As the Vegas captains surrounded the table, the hockey world wondered: Would they touch the trophy or succumb to NHL superstition by leaving it alone?

They did not touch it. Even though the Florida Panthers, whom the Knights will face in the Stanley Cup Final, did touch the Prince of Wales Trophy, which is awarded to the Eastern Conference winner.

"The one that we want to touch is four wins away," said Knights forward Jonathan Marchessault.

The two trophies have been handed out to teams in some fashion since 1967. In 1993-94, the NHL began giving out the Campbell Bowl to the Western Conference playoff champion and the Wales Trophy to the Eastern Conference playoff champion.

In 1997, the Philadelphia Flyers won the Eastern Conference title. Their captain, Eric Lindros, refused to touch the Wales Trophy, a move credited with starting a peculiar tradition in the NHL in which teams that win a championship refuse to properly acknowledge the trophy they earned.

There are two primary motivations for that behavior. The first one is symbolic. As Marchessault inferred, teams believe they haven't won anything until they hoist the Stanley Cup, so why celebrate something less significant than hockey's Holy Grail?

The other one is pure sports superstition: The belief that touching the conference trophy can somehow impact a team's ability to win the Stanley Cup.

Marchessault could be heard on the ice after Game 6 encouraging his teammates not to touch the Campbell Bowl. He was there in 2018 when Vegas captain Deryk Engelland touched the trophy and the team lost in the Stanley Cup Final to the Washington Capitals. He wasn't going to allow his teammates to touch it this time.

"It's just one of those things where it didn't work out for us the first year, right?" said Marchessault. "So we're back here and we want to do things different."

Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy was more curious than concerned about his team touching the hardware.

"I'm not a superstitious guy at all, so I was game for whatever they decided," said Cassidy, whose Boston Bruins team did not touch the Wales Trophy in 2019. "It's their moment. If they wanted to pass it around, great. If not, that's fine by me too."

The Panthers haven't been to the Stanley Cup Final since 1996, or one year before star forward Matthew Tkachuk was born. He said the team had no compunction about touching their trophy.

"The last thing that we're going to do is be superstitious about not touching it. Like, nobody said we were even going to make the playoffs. I think it's pretty cool to touch it, carry it around and take a picture with it. We earned that thing," he said after the Panthers swept the Carolina Hurricanes.

Does it matter?

According to ESPN Stats & Information, 17 teams have touched their conference championship trophy since 2001. Of those 17 teams, 10 have gone on to win the Stanley Cup.

From 2011 through 2015, no teams touched the conference trophies. But the Pittsburgh Penguins touched the Wales Trophy in 2016 and 2017, winning the Stanley Cup in both seasons -- just like they did in 2009, when they touched the Wales Trophy and won the Cup. In 2008, they didn't touch it and lost to Detroit in the Final.

The Tampa Bay Lightning touched it in both of their most recent Stanley Cup wins (2020 and 2021) -- and their 2022 Stanley Cup Final loss to the Colorado Avalanche, who touched the Campbell Bowl.

About the Golden Knights vs. the Panthers: Each of the past four head-to-head touch vs no-touch Cup Final series has been won by the team who touched the conference title trophy.

Adjust your expectations accordingly.

The season's third major is just around the corner and this week's event will provide a nice tune-up for many of the big names who are getting ready for the U.S. Open. 

The Memorial Tournament has always attracted a strong field, so making it a designated event this year only slightly increases the strength of field. There are only a few notables taking a pass this week, such as Max Homa and Tony Finau. 

Similarly to last week, we see another invitational event which means a smaller field (120) with the low 65 and ties playing the weekend. 

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Scottie Scheffler

He's the model of consistency right now with nothing but top-12 finishes on his resume since the CJ Cup last October. Scheffler has three previous appearances at Muirfield Village with a missed cut, T-22, and a third-place showing on his resume. He's improved upon each return visit and he'll continue to be a pre-tournament betting favorite until he shows any sign of slowing down his current pace. 

Jon Rahm

While Scheffler has the edge in recent consistency, Rahm has piled up six wins since October. He's also a past champ at Muirfield Village (2020 Memorial). He should have also won the following year but was forced to WD ahead of the final round, in which he was leading by six, due to testing positive for COVID-19. It wasn't love at first sight for Rahm but he's now been T-11 or better after eight of his last 11 rounds at this event. 

Patrick Cantlay

While Rahm has played well here in recent years, Cantlay has an even longer track record of success at Jack's Place. He's played seven events at Muirfield Village and collected five top-10s in those appearances, with two of those doubling as wins. Sure, he got gifted one of those wins due to Rahm's COVID situation, but the pure volume of good play at the course tells us that he likes the layout.  

Rickie Fowler

He's bagged top-20s in eight of his last 10 stroke-play events, continuing to trend back toward the winner's circle. Fowler has a boom-or-bust relationship with Muirfield Village as he's posted top-25s in seven of 14 appearances but also missed the cut in four of his last 10 tries at the course. His run of recent results would lend us to believe another top-25 should be on the way this week. 

Jason Day

He's a member at the course but has underperformed there over the course of his career. Day has landed just three top-25s in 14 tries at Muirfield Village with one of those coming at the 2020 Workday Charity Open, which featured a more generous course setup. His return to form in 2023 finally resulted in a win at the Byron Nelson a few weeks ago but he's surrounded that win with a pair of missed cuts. 

RANKING THE FIELD

1. Jon Rahm
2. Scottie Scheffler
3. Patrick Cantlay
4. Xander Schauffele
5. Rory McIlroy
6. Viktor Hovland
7. Tyrrell Hatton
8. Collin Morikawa
9. Rickie Fowler
10. Jordan Spieth
11. Sungjae Im
12. Justin Thomas
13. Matt Fitzpatrick
14. Jason Day
15. Cameron Young
16. Sahith Theegala
17. Corey Conners
18. Wyndham Clark
19. Tom Kim
20. Si Woo Kim

After more than 300 days, Daniel Berger is returning to competition. 

The four-time PGA Tour winner is planning to tee it up in U.S. Open final qualifying at Pine Tree Golf Club in Boynton Beach, Florida, on June 5. He has a 7:35 a.m. ET tee time to start the 36-hole event.

The last time Berger, 30, played competitively was in the second round of the 2022 U.S. Open at Brookline. He shot a 75 to miss the cut by two strokes.

A back injury then forced him to shelve his clubs — and he's since fallen from 25th to 136th in the world rankings. 

Berger was coming off a Ryder Cup nod in 2021 and decided to take time off after a taxing year. During his hiatus from golf, however, severe pain in his lower back began to surface for the first time in his life. And when he started the season at Kapalua, something was off. 

He played through it, though, making 12 starts in 2022. He had to withdraw from his title defense at Pebble Beach, but a month later, he nearly won the Honda Classic in March, blowing a five-shot, final-round lead. 

Then, after the U.S. Open, he shut it down. 

"There was a point that I would have given up golf for the rest of my life not to feel like that," Berger recently told the Associated Press.

"I was taking two ice baths a day to get on the course."

At first, doctors struggled to diagnose his injury. But eventually, former world No. 1 Luke Donald helped him get in touch with a doctor that detected a slight bulge in a lower disc and deep bone sensitivity. 

In the past few months, Berger has started to see progress. 

"It doesn’t feel perfect, but I know it's not career-ending," he told the AP.

Now, after a long road back, Berger is ready to launch his comeback campaign at final qualifying near his hometown, hoping to find a way into this year's U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club. 

And he's looking forward to the task at hand. 

“When I took time off, I was a top-20 player," he said. "I'll be coming back with nothing. I get it — it’s part of the game. You’ve got to earn everything. When I come back, I’ll come back with fire in my belly.

"I'll enjoy the challenge of getting back to where I was."

DUBLIN, Ohio – Putting together the pieces of next year’s reimagined schedule is turning out to be as challenging as many imagined as evidenced by a “sample” of the 2024 lineup the PGA Tour is circulating to players and managers.

The sample schedule is a broad outline of what next year might look like as the circuit transitions back to a calendar year lineup and a better flow to the new designated-event structure.

According to the schedule that’s being circulated, the season begins with the Sentry Tournament of Champions (Jan. 4-7), followed by three full-field events (likely the Sony Open, The American Express and the Farmers Insurance Open). The Feb. 1-4 slot on the schedule is noted as a designated event and, according to various sources, will be the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, followed by the Genesis Invitational (Feb. 8-11), which is also a designated event.

Commissioner Jay Monahan told reporters earlier this month that the goal is to avoid leaving non-designated events isolated between designated events, like this year’s Honda Classic, and the three-week, elevated break after the Genesis Invitational would likely include the West Palm Beach, Florida, event (which has not named a replacement sponsor for Honda), an event in Mexico and a third tournament.

As was the case this year, the Arnold Palmer Invitational (March 7-10) and The Players Championship (March 14-17), both designated events, are followed by another three-week full-field swing (which would likely be the Valspar Championship, Houston Open and Texas Open) before the Masters (April 11-14). The week after the year’s first major (April 18-21) will be a designated event and will likely be the RBC Heritage.

The sample schedule features two weeks of full-field events before a designated event, May 9-12 (which is currently the Wells Fargo Championship), followed by the PGA Championship (May 16-19).

Perhaps one of the more dramatic changes to the current schedule would be the run up to the U.S. Open, which includes the Memorial, played June 6-9. Jack Nicklaus’ tournament has been played the week after Memorial Day (the last Monday of May) since the mid-1990s. The sample schedule features three consecutive designated events – Memorial, U.S. Open (June 13-16) and the Travelers Championship (June 20-23).

The remainder of the schedule includes The Open Championship (July 18-21) sandwiched between a pair of three-event, non-designated-tournament swings before the playoffs begin with the FedEx St. Jude Championship (Aug. 15-18). The BMW Championship is scheduled for Aug. 22-25 followed by the season-ending Tour Championship (Aug. 20-Sept. 1).