Formula One: German fashion brand Hugo Boss will partner the championship-leading Mercedes Formula One team next year, ending a decades-long association with McLaren. “With Mercedes-Benz and Hugo Boss formally intensifying their existing co-operations earlier this year, extending the partnership into the brand’s Formula One team was a logical progression,” Mercedes said.

Winter Sport: Lindsey Vonn is set to ski for the first time in 10 months this week as she targets a December return to the World Cup circuit. Vonn underwent major knee surgery in January which ruled her out of the Winter Olympics in Sochi. The 2010 Olympic downhill gold medallist and four-time World Cup champion will make her return during a training week in Austria. Vonn hopes to return for the World Cup race in Alberta in the first week of December. “A lot of people don’t think I will be back,” Vonn said. “That’s fine. The other girls are probably feeling pretty comfortable without me out there. When I do come back I think they’ll see that they can’t be comfortable anymore.”

Rugby Union: South Africa coach Heyneke Meyer has made one change to his line-up to face New Zealand in their Rugby Championship clash in Johannesburg on Saturday. Bismark du Plessis, controversially sent off in New Zealand last year, takes over at hooker from Adriaan Strauss in what is otherwise an unchanged side from the one that defeated Australia 28-10 in Cape Town at the weekend. The match will be Springbok captain Jean de Villiers’s 50th appearance in the Rugby Championship, the most by a South African.