Sports Summary - 18th September 2019

Wales setback after assistant coach sent home over possible betting breach

Wales have been been hit by a setback at the rugby World Cup with assistant coach Rob Howley sent home over a possible breach of betting rules. The former captain has been part of Warren Gatland's coaching team since 2008.

World Rugby boss Brett Gosper insists the sport doesn't have a doping issue on the eve of the World Cup.

Last year's breakthrough player of the year Apihwe Dyantyi is out of the tournament after failing a doping test, while six players from 122 tested at a schoolboy event earlier this year in South Africa tested positive.

Australia will be missing from a new netball Quad Series, starting next year.

Joining the world champion Silver Ferns in the inaugural Nations Cup will be hosts England, Jamaica and South Africa.

Roosters prop Jared Waerea-Hargreaves will miss his side's preliminary final after being found guilty of tripping at the NRL judiciary.

At least eight Brisbane Broncos were spotted in a pub the night before their 58-nil thrashing by Parramatta in the NRL finals.

The players congregated in a pokies room but there is no suggestion, at this stage, that any were drinking alcohol.

St George-Illawarra prop Teuila Fotu-Moala's season is over after she was suspended for three weeks over a level-two dangerous contact charge.

She's the first player suspended in the competition.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport has reduced Paris St Germain striker Neymar's suspension from three to two UEFA games for labelling the Video Assistant Referee system "a disgrace" last year.

Former South African fast bowler Kyle Abbott has taken nine for 40 to help Hampshire dismiss Somerset for 142 in the English county cricket championship.

Sarah Thomas has become the first person to swim the English Channel four times without stopping.

The 37-year-old American's completed the feat in 54 hours, a year after receiving treatment for breast cancer.

In theory, the route Thomas swam should have been 130 kilometres, but due to strong Channel currents she swam 210.

She's celebrated with champagne and chokkies.

The Saudi Cup is set to become the world's richest horse race in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh on February 29.

The race will have prize money of 31 million dollars, with half that going to the winner.

That's three times the purse of the current most lucrative race, the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in France.