Today's sports news: What you need to know

Latest - Replacement first five-eight Gareth Anscombe kicked a late conversion from the touchline as Wales claimed their first ever away victory in South Africa with an error-strewn 13-12 success over a much-changed Springboks at the Free State Stadium.

Wing Josh Adams crossed for the only try of the game with two minutes left on the clock, leaving Anscombe with a difficult conversion to win the game, but he landed the ball through the centre of the posts to make history for Wayne Pivac's side.

Stand-in captain Handre Pollard kicked four penalties for a Boks side that had 14 changes in their starting XV from the first test win and never found any fluency in a game where they mostly dominated territory until the final 10 minutes.

The third and deciding test in the series will be played in Cape Town next Saturday.

-Reuters

England level series with Wallabies

Owen Farrell kicked 20 points as England took an imposing early lead and held off a spirited Australian fightback to level the three-match series at 1-1 with a 25-17 victory in Brisbane on Saturday.

An early Billy Vunipola try and four penalties had England 19-0 ahead in the 32nd minute and two more three-pointers from Farrell in the second half proved enough to take the series to a decider at Sydney Cricket Ground next Saturday.

Australia, 30-28 winners in the series opener last week, scored tries through Taniela Tupou and Samu Kerevi either side of halftime but were unable to extend their 10-match winning streak at Lang Park.

England coach Eddie Jones had made headlines with the selection of three rookies in his backline but it was the seasoned veterans in his pack and the almost unerring boot of Farrell that delivered victory.

-Reuters

Alker in contention at Senior Players Championship

Jerry Kelly shot a 5-under 65 and is tied for the lead with Alex Cejka after three rounds of the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship at Akron, Ohio.

Kelly carded six birdies and one bogey in his stellar round while Cejka shot 67 on Firestone Country Club's South Course. Both men are at 9-under 201 entering Sunday's final around.

"Not trying to do too much with my iron shots, just giving myself good looks," Kelly said of his round. "And then the putter was better today, made a couple good up-and-downs. Just one three-putt out there ... but overall everything was just kind of smooth."

Cejka, the Czech-born German, finished with a flourish with four birdies over the final five holes. Overall, he had six birdies and three bogeys.

"It's great to finish strong," Cejka said. "I played pretty good all day long, but had a terrible start, made two stupid bogeys. Had a lot of good chances, couldn't make a putt with great shots. It's frustrating."

Defending champion Steve Stricker and New Zealand's Steven Alker (69) are tied for third, two shots back.

van Gisbergen keeps winning

Shane van Gisbergen has returned to the winners' circle with a perfectly timed overtaking move sealing victory in the opening 250km Supercars race in Townsville.

The Red Bull ace recorded his ninth win in Townsville, 10th of the season of and 64th of his career after overhauling Will Davison late in what turned out to be a gripping Townsville 500 opener.

Davison led Van Gisbergen by as much as 17 seconds late, until the defending Supercars champion started to mow down the two-time Bathurst winner after his second pit stop.

Davison's Shell Ford teammate Anton De Pasquale finished sixth, meaning van Gisbergen has opened up his series lead to 262 points ahead of today's second 250km race of the event.

van Aert consolidates lead in the Tour de France points classification

Wout van Aert consolidated his lead in the points classification of the Tour de France with an impressive late burst of speed to win the eighth stage of cycling's biggest race, a hilly 186.3km ride from Dole to Lausanne across the border in Switzerland.

The Belgian bagged his second stage win in this edition in a reduced bunch sprint at the top of the Cote du Stade Olympique, a 4.8km effort at an average gradient of 4.6 percent.

Green jersey holder Van Aert, who now has a 115-point lead in the points classification over Dutchman Fabio Jakobsen, beat Australian Michael Matthews after launching his sprint with 200 metres left.

Tadej Pogacar took third place to retain his overall leader's yellow jersey, picking up a four-second time bonus in the process.

Pogacar was involved in an early mass pile-up that brought two-time runner-up Nairo Quintana, two-time podium finisher Romain Bardet and fellow Frenchman David Gaudu, as well as 2018 champion Geraint Thomas, to the ground - or into a grassy ditch.

None of them appeared to have been injured.

The ninth stage is a 192.9km mountainous trek from Aigle, Switzerland, to Chatel back in France.

-Reuters

Verstappen secures pole at home track

Formula One championship leader Max Verstappen beat his battling Ferrari rivals to win a sprint race and put Red Bull on pole position for the Austrian Grand Prix at his team's home track.

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc will line up alongside the Dutch driver on the front row after a scrap for second with Spanish team mate and British Grand Prix winner Carlos Sainz, who finished third.

The victory at the Red Bull Ring stretched Verstappen's championship lead to 38 points over team mate Sergio Perez, who finished fifth after starting 13th. Leclerc is six points further back.

Mercedes's George Russell took fourth place, with seven-times world champion team mate Lewis Hamilton taking a point in eighth.

Alpine's Esteban Ocon was sixth, the Frenchman stopping on track after the chequered flag, with Kevin Magnussen seventh for Haas.

The sprint race awards points to the top eight, with the winner taking eight.

-Reuters

India rout Englad in T20 series

Indian seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar struck three times as a spirited bowling display from the touring side helped them outclass England by 49 runs in the second Twenty20 at Edgbaston on Saturday to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series.

Bhuvneshwar (3-15) rocked England early in their pursuit of 171, removing Jason Roy with the first ball and then his fellow opener and England captain Jos Buttler, before Yuzvendra Chahal (2-10) chipped in with two wickets to leave the home side struggling on 55-5.

Moeen Ali (35) and David Willey (33) kept England afloat with entertaining cameos but a flurry of wickets meant that they were bowled out for 121 in 17 overs.

Earlier, India's bold new approach to T20 cricket was on show again after they were put in to bat as Rohit Sharma and Rishabh Pant got stuck into the England attack from the outset, accumulating 61 runs in the powerplay.

But that early momentum was halted by paceman Richard Gleeson (3-15), who revelled in a dream debut by claiming the prized scalps of Rohit (31), Virat Kohli (1) and Pant (26) in the space of four balls.

Suryakumar Yadav (15) and Hardik Pandya (12) also departed early, both falling to Chris Jordan (4-27), as England mounted a strong recovery before a 29-ball 46 from Ravindra Jadeja helped India finish on an imposing 170-8.

-Reuters

France beat Brave Blossoms

France achieved their objective in winning their two-test series over Japan by giving test experience to many of their fringe players, coach Fabien Galthie said after Saturday's narrow 20-15 second test victory in Tokyo.

France left many of their regulars, including World Player of the year Antoine Dupont, at home for their two matches in Japan and in both tests had to fight their way back to ensure victory.

"The objective with this team was to win the matches we had on the programme and that we did. That was the important thing for us, the staff. If we take young players on tour with an eye on development, we had to succeed in bringing them to this level of performance and that is why the objective was achieved," Galthie said.

France won the first test in Aichi 42-23 but only after a strong second-half showing, while Saturday's second test saw the tourists snatch victory some 10 minutes from time and hold on, with some good fortune, as Japan spilled a chance to win near the end

"It was a very difficult match as everyone could see, with a comeback after halftime where we were trailing by eight points," Galthie said.

"It was also the first time this season that we were trailing before the break and conceding a try just before the halftime.

"We have a young team and it was interesting to see how they would react. And then in the second half, they did react and score. There are a lot of positive things in the second half that allowed us to win this match."

France host next year's World Cup and now look forward to tests in November at home against Australia and world champions South Africa in Marseille

-Reuters