SPORTS SATURDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2015

Red Bull to race with Renault-TAG Heuer engines

BERLIN: Red Bull will use Renault-Tag Niki Lauda and Alain Prost in the selves have announced that they will those engines in their own way. Heuer engines to compete in the 2016 1980’s. “And we are deeply satisfied now return to the sport as a full con- Formula One has been trying to Formula One season, the Austrian with Renault’s decision to stick with us structor in 2016 after their takeover at introduce measures to make cars and owned but British-based racing team and F1,” said the boss of the team Lotus. Swiss watchmaker TAG Heuer engines cheaper for ‘client teams’, said yesterday. launched in 2007 and who clinched will take the naming rights of the ones that don’t have their own major The announcement ends months of the world title four times between Renault V6 engine within the Red Bull motor company and use Renault, speculation surrounding their future in 2010-2013. team, and as such, next year’s car will Mercedes or Ferrari engines for Formula One and which engines they After Sebastian Vettel’s four-year be called the Bull Racing-TAG Heuer example. Red Bull’s top driver would compete with. “TAG Heuer is a domination in the Red Bull, Lewis RB12. Australia’s Daniel Riccardo came Formula One icon and we are very Hamilton and Mercedes have been a Renault’s other team Lotus, whom eighth in the final standings in the happy to work with them,” Red Bull class apart the last two years. Red Bull they bought back recently, will also Formula One 2015 championship team boss Christian Horner said of the has had a strained relationship with use the V6 engine, although mechan- while the constructor itself came company that helped McLaren pilots engine supplier Renault, who them- ics at the various racing teams work on fourth from nine. — AFP

Davids to lead troubled Kings in

CAPE TOWN: Troubled South African Super Rugby side the have appointed rookie Deon Davids as their coach for the 2016 season and promised to pay their players in the next week. The -based side is being administered by the South African Rugby Union (SARU) who were asked to step in by previous custodians, provincial union Eastern Province Rugby, who have run into financial difficulties. Davids, 48, a former assistant coach to the South Africa Under- 20 side and who most recently led the South Western Districts Academy team, has no previous Super Rugby experience though he did coach minnows Boland in the domestic competi- tion until five years ago. He is expected to lead an extended 42-player squad, though SARU admit they have yet to tie all the players they have targeted to contracts. “We are unable to go into all the player details right now as we still have to confirm some contracts and tie up loan arrangements but, considering when we started and from what base, I am very pleased with where we have come,” SARU CEO Jurie Roux said in a press release yesterday. “I believe we are putting together a more than competent squad that will not only be representative of the region but coinci- dentally meets the targets of our Strategic Transformation Plan four years ahead of schedule. “The squad we have identified will have around 50 percent DUBAI: Nelson Oyoo of Kenya dives over to score as Cameraon Cowell of England tries to defend during the first day of black players while the management team is more than 50 percent the Sevens World Series rugby tournament in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, yesterday. — AP black. Our Rugby Department has picked the best available talent.” Roux said the players and management would be paid next week, although the position of players not contracted to the Southern Toulon counting on Kings by SARU remains to be resolved by Eastern Province Rugby. Roux said he hoped to confirm two new sponsorships in the New Year that would assist in funding the new-look Kings. South Africa’s six Super Rugby sides are owned by SARU and awarded to explosive Nonu debut host unions at their discretion, placing pressure on Eastern Province Rugby to ease their perilous financial state or risk poten- tially losing the team for the 2017 season. — Reuters PARIS: Bernard Laporte warned Toulon ‘Truth on the pitch’ bounce back after last weekend’s reversal. were expecting an explosive debut from Nonu will link up with France centre “We slipped up, we know it. Next up World Cup-winner Ma’a Nonu in his first Mathieu Bastareaud, also fresh from extend- Brive! It’s always a unique match for me match for the Top 14 side against Agen ing his contract for five years, in an explo- because I trained and spend my early pro- today. sive combination sure to intimidate their fessional years there,” said Chouly. The New Zealand centre lines up just lowly rivals. Nonu’s arrival has shaken up Montpellier, meanwhile, have recruited over a week after his arrival at the three- the Toulon personnel with Maxime Mermoz New Zealander Jamie McKintosh and time European champions and expecta- rested for the first time this season. “The Georgian Davit Kubriashvili as cover for CJ tions are high in southern France. truth on the pitch will tell,” said Laporte, Van der Linde, Schalk Van der Merwe and Manager Laporte said he had met Nonu adding: “What will be the better combina- Yvan Watremez. Both props could play for for the first time this week and believed tion, is it Nonu with Mathieu Bastareaud or Montpellier, who sit sixth in the Top 14, for the veteran could act as a motor to power Maxime Mermoz? One thing’s certain, he their trip to Castres, two places below them. the team further ahead after last week- can play with the two. There is Basta and Stade Francais will be looking to build end’s 35-9 thumping of leaders Clermont. Maxime in him, he’s a great player.” on last week’s 21-19 away win over “Like (Matt) Giteau here or (Dan) Carter in Clermont, meanwhile, will be looking to Grenoble to get their floundering season Paris, we expect players like this (Nonu) to get back to winning ways in Sunday’s derby further back on track. Reigning champions help pull everyone towards the top,” said against Massif Central rivals Brive. Since Stade are tenth after five losses in nine former France coach Laporte. 1927, the two cities separated by just games and host midtable Bordeaux-Begles. “I didn’t know him, we never met 180km in the mountainous region of central Captain Sergio Parisse has committed to before,” said Laporte. “We’re just getting France, have played 94 times with Clermont the club for next season. “I’m staying at to know each other. He’s someone with a claiming most of those victories. home .. at Paris !!” the 114 times capped lot of humility and seems very likeable. This time Brive have reason to believe as Italian forward wrote on Twitter. AUGUSTA: In this April 8, 2015, file phot, Lindsey Vonn sits You can tell he’s a good guy.” they ride high just two points behind Elsewhere Toulouse, beaten 28-13 by with Tiger Woods and his children Sam and Charlie during South African flanker Duane Clermont, and a win would see them reach Racing 92 last weekend host struggling the Par 3 contest at the Masters golf tournament in Vermeulen said he was expecting the 33- the summit at their rival’s expense. Oyonnax, while as in Friday’s early match Augusta, Ga. Woods says he has a “fantastic” relationship year-old All Black to find his feet soon. Racing 92 take on Pau. Pau were thrashed with former wife Elin Nordegren and he has begun explain- “He’s shy like New Zealanders are some- Unique match 46-10 by Bordeaux last week and are third ing to his two children what happened to their marriage. In times but little by little he’s opening up,” Clermont captain Damien Chouly from bottom in the Top 14, just three points an interview with Time magazine, he says when they come said Vermeulen. warned they would be using the derby to ahead of Agen and Oyonnax. — AFP of age he will tell them the “real story.” — AP