Today's sports news: What you need to know

Latest - The Crusaders have named an unchanged lineup from the team that beat the Blues in their final round-robin game for Saturday's Super Rugby Aotearoa final against the Chiefs.

All Black mid-fielder Braydon Ennor has been named on the reserves bench and is set to play his first game for the Crusaders this season after suffering a serious knee ligament injury in October's North-South game.

Ennor's return is earlier than anticipated as he was not due back until the trans-Tasman competition which starts next weekend.

For the Chiefs Luke Jacobson, Alex Nankivell, Naitoa Ah Kuoi and Chase Tiatia return from injury for the final.

Bryn Gatland has been handed number 10 jersey for another week with Damian McKenzie to start at fullback.

A powerful loose forward combination will see Pita Gus Sowakula shift from number eight to the blindside, Lachlan Boshier will don the number seven jersey and Jacobson will return at number eight.

In the backs, halfback Te Toiroa Tahuriorangi shifts to the bench as cover with the return of co-captain Brad Weber.

Nankivell and All Blacks midfielder Anton Lienert-Brown will once again combine in the midfield.

Wingers Etene Nanai-Seturo and Jonah Lowe return to the left and right wings.

-RNZ

Chelsea into Champions League final

Chelsea are set for a Champions League final showdown with Manchester City after they claimed a 2-0 win over Real Madrid for a 3-1 aggregate triumph at Stamford Bridge.

Thirteen-times European champions Real, who had advanced through each of their last three Champions League semi-final ties, had been second best for much of last week's first leg which ended 1-1.

A goal from Timo Werner opened the second-leg scoring mid-way through the first-half before midfielder Mason Mount doubled their advantage with five minutes to go.

Chelsea last made the final in 2012 when they beat Bayern Munich on penalties to claim their first ever Champions League title, the sixth European trophy in the club's history.

This year's final in Istanbul will be the second all-English champions League final in three seasons.

With Chelsea's women's team also winning their Champions League semi-final, the London side have become the first club to have both their men's and women's team in the final in one season.

New golf competition a 'money grab'

Four-times major champion Rory McIlroy says the proposed Super Golf League (SGL) is nothing more than a "money grab" and he remains committed to chasing major victories on the PGA Tour.

The Northern Irishman, competing at this week's PGA Tour event in North Carolina, likened the proposed rival circuit to European football's breakaway Super League project that spectacularly collapsed last week before it could get off the ground.

McIlroy was speaking a day after a report in Britain's Daily Telegraph detailed a renewed Saudi Arabian-led plan to create a breakaway rival circuit that promises lavish payouts to those who agreed to join.

According to The Telegraph, players have been offered between $30 million-$100 million to take part in SGL, but the PGA Tour has threatened members with instant suspension and a lifetime ban if they join the breakaway.

McIlroy, who said he was first approached by the SGL in 2014 when it was known as the Premier Golf League, has spoken out against it before.

"I think the top players in the game, I'm just speaking my own personal beliefs, like I'm playing this game to try to cement my place in history and my legacy and to win major championships," said McIlroy.

- Reuters

High marks for Olympic test event

World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe has given Tokyo Olympic organisers high marks for a marathon test event they staged in Sapporo, saying they were able to deliver both on the operation of the race and on their Covid-19 countermeasures.

The Sapporo Challenge Half Marathon 2021 was held on Wednesday as a dress rehearsal for the marquee Olympic event with less than three months before the Summer Games begin.

Six international athletes participated in the event in the northern city and had to go through stringent testing protocols before and after entering Japan.

"The organising committee here not only demonstrated the ability to stage an event on the field of play, it also demonstrated the ability to deliver across other complexities including, of course, the COVID-19 protocols," Coe told a news conference.

All participants, including staff and media, had to log their temperature and answer a health questionnaire daily in the week leading up to the event, either through a mobile app or on paper.

Organisers urged spectators not to come and watch the race, with event staff holding signs reading: "To prevent infection, please refrain from watching." Staff wore masks and sometimes face shields and plastic gloves.

- Reuters

IPL faces big financial hit

A senior official says the Indian cricket board faces losing about $NZ370 million in revenue after its lucrative and star-studded Indian Premier League (IPL) was halted by the COVID-19 crisis in the country.

The world's richest Twenty20 league was approaching its halfway stage before it was suspended indefinitely on Tuesday following bubble breaches in two venues.

"The ballpark figure for revenue loss would be to the tune of 2000 crore rupees (20 billion)," Arun Singh Dhumal, treasurer of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), said.

"Given all our contractual obligations, we are yet to find out what would be the actual figure," he said, adding that the governing body's immediate priority was to ensure the league's foreign players returned home safely.

STAR Sports bagged the IPL's television and digital rights for 2018-2022 for 163.48 billion rupees, agreeing to pay about 545 million rupees per game in a 60-match season.

With only 29 games of 60 completed before the pandemic halted this year's IPL, the BCCI could lose a chunk of that pot.

- Reuters

Fans for a few EPL games

The Premier League will allow a limited number of supporters to return to stadiums for the final two rounds of the 2020-21 season, with attendance restricted to home fans.

Matches in England's top-flight have taken place behind closed doors since June, apart from a brief window late last year when small crowds were allowed before a resurgence of Covid-19 cases.

But supporters will return, in a limited capacity, after May 17 in line with the government's plan to ease lockdown restrictions in England.

The Premier League last week confirmed fixtures had been rescheduled to provide an opportunity for each club to host one home match with supporters before the end of the season.

The penultimate round of games will be played on May 18-19, with the final matches of the season taking place on May 23.

A crowd of 8,000 watched Manchester City beat Tottenham Hotspur in the League Cup final on April 25, while this month's FA Cup final is expected to have 21,000 fans present.

- Reuters

Women set for Club World Cup

Fifa president Gianni Infantino says a new Women's Club World Cup is being planned as part of a plan to "revolutionise" the female game.

In an interview with French sports newspaper L'Equipe, Infantino said he was looking forward to the first edition of the already agreed new 24-team men's Club World Cup but said a women's version was in the pipeline too.

Such a tournament would allow for the top European teams from UEFA's Women's Champions League to face off with clubs from the United States' National Women's Soccer League as well as sides from countries where the women's game is still developing.

The US women's national team are the current world champions and the dominant force in the game. However, top European men's clubs have invested heavily in their women's sides in recent years.

Infantino has previously floated the idea of the Women's World Cup, for national sides, being played every two years rather than the current four year cycle.

The Club World Cup is being expanded from a relatively low-key tournament involving seven teams, including just one from Europe, to a 24-team event including eight sides from Europe which FIFA hopes will be a major revenue generator, similar to the World Cup itself.

- Reuters