American Football, NFL: Former National Football League offensive lineman Sam Adams, a stalwart of the New England Patriots teams of the 1970s, died in Texas over the weekend, the team said on Wednesday. The native of the east Texas city of Jasper will be buried in his hometown, said Rodney Coleman of Coleman’s Mortuary. “For the majority of his Patriots career, he played right guard, opposite John Hannah at left guard. The two helped form the most formidable offensive line in franchise history and, quite possibly, one of the best in league history,” Patriots chairman Robert Kraft said in a statement.

Cycling: Saxo Bank will not renew the sponsorship of the Tinkoff-Saxo professional cycling team for another season, the Copenhagen-based online foreign exchange brokerage firm said yesterday. Saxo Bank has sponsored the team with riders such as multi-grand tour winner Spaniard Alberto Contador and sprinter Peter Sagan from Slovakia for the past eight seasons. Speculation around the bank’s departure from the sponsorship has been going on for a while after team manager Bjarne Riis left the cycling outfit in March after a dispute with Oleg Tinkov, founder of Russia’s Tinkoff Bank, which is the other main sponsor for the team.

Rugby Union: Wales head coach Warren Gatland has made three changes of personnel to his team for tomorrow’s Rugby World Cup quarter-final against South Africa at Twickenham. Newport Gwent Dragons centre Tyler Morgan starts in midfield alongside Jamie Roberts, while prop Gethin Jenkins returns instead of Paul James and flanker Dan Lydiate is in the back-row with skipper Sam Warburton and number eight Taulupe Faletau. Positional moves see George North revert to the wing after he started at centre against Australia in last weekend’s Pool A decider, with Warburton switching from blindside to openside flanker.