RUGBY UNION: Paul O’Connell was chosen as the new Ireland captain yesterday but will start on the bench for coach Joe Schmidt’s first game in charge against Samoa tomorrow as he recovers from a calf injury. Jamie Heaslip was named as the squad’s new vice-captain and will lead a team out that includes debutant loosehead prop Jack McGrath of Leinster. Veteran James O’Driscoll will spearhead an experienced backline.

TENNIS: Former US Open champion Sam Stosur has turned to Andy Murray’s former coach Miles Maclagan to help reverse her slide down the world rankings. The 29-year-old Australian, who has dropped to 18th in the world from fourth in 2011, failed to get beyond the third round at any of the year’s grand slams and split with her long-time coach David Taylor before this year’s US Open.

HORSE RACING: Tony McCoy, the most successful jump jockey of all time, rode his 4,000th winner when he partnered Mountain Tunes to victory at Towcester in England yesterday. Champion jockey for the last 18 seasons, the Irishman needed all his customary strength in the saddle to drive his mount to a narrow victory for trainer Jonjo O’Neill.

SOCHI GAMES: The Sochi 2014 Olympic torch was launched into space yesterday on board a Soyuz TMA-11M rocket. Exactly one month since the start of its journey across Russia, the torch took off on the rocket which blasted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome. On arrival at the International Space Station, the commander of the ship, Mikhail Tyurin, will pass the torch to Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazansky, who will take it on a spacewalk tomorrow.