Formula One: McLaren have signed 20-year-old Belgian Stoffel Vandoorne to their young driver programme. Vandoorne, who won last year’s Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 Championship, will this season compete in the Formula Renault 3.5 Championship with the Fortec motorsports team, his agent said yesterday.

Rugby League: The Rugby League International Federation has confirmed the shoulder charge will be banned worldwide, starting with Friday’s World Club Challenge in Leeds and taking in the 2013 World Cup. The Australian Rugby League Commission outlawed the controversial tackle at the end of last year while New Zealand already had a ban in place in its domestic competition, but the Rugby Football League decided to retain it until a full consultation process had been undertaken. However, the International Federation yester-day agreed to extend the ban worldwide.

Cycling: The International Cycling Union have approved a list of 19 registered UCI ProTeams for the 2013 season, the governing body has confirmed. Russian team Katusha have been added to the group after last week winning a Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling in their fight for a WorldTour licence over their dispute with the UCI. Katusha were denied a WorldTour licence in December on “ethical grounds” and the UCI in January handed the team a lower-level Pro-fessional Continental licence to allow it to race. But CAS’s ruling on Friday meant the UCI had to decide to approve a 19th team or remove one of the licences already awarded.

Rugby Union: The Australian Rugby Union is banking on this year’s British and Irish Lions tour breaking attendance records after huge demand for tickets on the opening day of general sale. Tickets for eight of the nine matches were up for grabs on Monday with the games against the Wallabies in Sydney and Melbourne selling out in 15 minutes and the opening test in Brisbane following suit after just five minutes. The allocation for the tour match against New South Wales Waratahs at the Sydney Football Stadium was also sold out.