england expect to improve but will now face a tougher route through this tournament. the hope is their world cup doesn't start and end with the same result. rugby union now. it will be a long trip home for exeter chiefs fans this evening but they will make it as league leaders after beating sale sharks 10—6. the key moment of the match came when lachie turner burst through to score the only tryjust after the break. second place saracens play london irish tomorrow. seven games, seven wins for glasgow in the pro 1a, and they took a bonus point against southern kings. the warriors ran in seven tries in a 15—13 victory against the south african side. and ospreys ended a seven match losing streak by winning their welsh derby with dragons 28—14. sam parry scored the first of four ospreys tries to earn them a bonus point victory. connacht beat munster in the other pro 1a match. sheffield united are top of the championship — at least for tonight —

after they beat yorkshire rivals leeds 2—1 at bramall lane. blades striker billy sharp had said he would celebrate if he scored against his old club. and he did, before the game was two minutes old. leeds were back on level terms before half time, they hadn't created many chances but kalvin phillips made the most of this one. sheffield united had been the better tea m sheffield united had been the better team and david brooks showed his class to finish the game off. they go one point clear of wolves at the top of the championship. tottenham striker harry kane will miss tomorrow's premier league match with manchester united with a hamstring injury. kane scored twice as spurs beat liverpool 4—1 last sunday, but had to be substituted late in the game. manager mauricio pochettino called it a minor hamstring strain, enough though to keep the premier league's leading goal—scorer out as second placed united face third placed spurs. i'm not happy, i'm disappointed. because harry is our main striker. he's one of the best players.

if not at tottenham, in europe. in the world, one of the best strikers. always, you are going to miss your best striker. no, i'm not silly, orstupid. anthony joshua has weighed in at the heaviest he has ever been for a professionalfight, at 18 stone and two pounds, for his world heavyweight title bout in cardiff tomorrow. joshua is trying to defend his ibf and wba world titles against the stand—in challenger carlos ta ka m. joshua was due to face the bulgarian kubrat pulev, but he had to withdraw, because of injury. his opponent weighed in lighter at 16 stone 11 and a half pounds. england's cricket captainjoe root insists there isn't a drinking culture within the squad. the players fly out to australia tomorrow without their talismanic all rounder ben stokes.

he was arrested on suspicion of causing actual bodily harm after an incident outside a bristol nightclub in last month. his absence has made an already difficult tour seem unwinnable to many pundits. here's our sports editor dan roan. england hold the ashes, but the last time they went away to australia they suffered a 5—0 thrashing and many people feel the same fate could happen to them this time around, they have been forced to name a relative the inexperienced batting line—up, and when they leave london tomorrow they will do so without arguably their most important player, the all—rounder ben stokes, egypt to find out if he will be charged by police following that altercation last month —— he is yet to find out. the captain ben ——joe root has been speaking about it. we have got to sit tight and wait, it is disappointing that ben is not

going to be with us, but we are a strong squad and this gives other players the opportunity to stand up and put their stamp on test cricket, they can do something special and really strengthened the depth of our squad. —— strengthened. it has been suggested this may be a culture issue with this side, a drinking culture. does there need to be a change? i don't think there is a drinking culture in cricket and in our side. i think we'll address the issue as a side and make sure situations like this do not happen again. of course, no one wants that. we are grown men, we know how to behave and we will make sure that we conduct ourselves well on this tour. is there anything you going to do differently in terms of the way you captain the side, given recent

events 7 captain the side, given recent eve nts 7 n ot captain the side, given recent events? not just the captain the side, given recent events? notjust the ben stokes situation, but the drinking late in the series in manchester, as well. are you going to do anything differently? we will sit down and make sure something like this never happens again. we know that what happened hasn't been good enough. and we're determined to get that right. you have lost a very important player, and also you have brought in some inexperienced buyers, it has been described as a shambolic build—up to the ashes —— brought in some inexperienced players. if you can win it would be a miracle. i don't think it would be a miracle. i don't think it would be a miracle, although these are u nfortu nate a miracle, although these are unfortunate circus answers. it's a chance for someone to come in —— although these are unfortunate circumstances. often someone gets a

birth in test cricket thanks to something like this, and you might be have someone who was not having a good time, but can now stand up and do something good for the rest of the country. it may have been a tough build—up to the ashes for england, but that must be put aside tomorrow, when they travel out to australia. there will be three warm up australia. there will be three warm up matches and then it builds up to the opening test match in brisbane on the 25th of november. caroline garcia is through to the last four of the wta finals at the expense of the world number one simona halep. she produced a stunning fightback against denmark's caroline wozniacki to reach the semi finals — karolina pliskova will replace halep as number one if she wins the title. and british number two kyle edmund maintained his fine form in vienna

with a straight—set quarterfinal win over germany's jan—lenna rd struff. the win puts edmund into his third atp semifinal of the year. in the past hour there was also a win for roger federer in the swiss indoors. that's all from sportsday. have a very good evening. hello and welcome to our look ahead to what the the papers will be bringing us tomorrow. with me are susie boniface, columnist at the daily mirror

and public affairs consultant alex deane. good evening. tomorrow's front pages. the financial times has more on spain's move to sack catalonia's regional government as the fallout over independence deepens. the i is leading with the same story. it says the police are ready to intervene following catalonia's declaration of independence. the telegraph reports on warnings from the european commission president, who says the eu doesn't need more cracks following catalonia's declaration of independence. the daily mail reports nine british servicemen have been taken off a nuclear submarine amid sex and drug allegations. the top story in the daily mirror is the release of newly—declassified files related to the assassination ofjfk. many of us have been looking through them, trying to find something. and some people have, you have?” them, trying to find something. and some people have, you have? i have found stuff that wasn't in it. very

interesting. we will get tojk shortly, everyone is talking about it again. but we will start with the big story of the day —— jfk shortly. the crisis in spain, it escalates, thatis the crisis in spain, it escalates, that is the pretty blonde headline, it has been escalating for days, in all fairness —— pretty blunt. it has been escalating for days, in all fairness -- pretty blunt. this is the latest drawn—out stage of the catastrophe, chaos, goodness knows what is going to happen next, and every day there seems to be a new disastrous thing that someone has decided to do that will move things further towards some sort of reward them. —— some sort of horrible event. the catalan leader was challenged in a way to declare independence after the referendum, he said we will not declare independence, we want talks with spain, which were refused, and then he batted it over to the catalonian parliament, and said you can decide.

if he had decided it would have been the chopping block for him, but he shouted over to the parliament of catalonia and they said they would have independence, and the madrid madrid —— government has said, no, you are going to have direct rule, and what is going to happen next? are we going to have a free and fair election in which everyone in catalonia votes for independence and eve ryo ne catalonia votes for independence and everyone accept the result? do we have the kind of election which the catalonian independence movement is not going to approve of? 52-48 is a decisive margin, anyway... i derive my view from the way people have behaved, and the madrid government could hardly have played this worse, they sent people with riot shields and batons and beat grandmothers

away from polling booths, legal polling booths or not, they seized ballot boxes. the scenes in early october. exactly. the spanish police are moving in and there is concern expressed about what you are talking about. how could you not fear that what happened when they conducted the referendum in catalonia, which fio the referendum in catalonia, which no doubt would have passed off peacefully if madrid had not intervened, will be repeated, and everyone remembers that lincoln suspended habeas corpus in the american civil war. yeah, i suspended habeas corpus in the american civilwar. yeah, i remember that laughter if you have studied american history, you will remember that. my point is, that is what is happening here, the catalonian parliament wants to secede from spain and the government of spain is sending in the militia to stop them from being able to do so and imposing direct

rule, the stakes are that high. able to do so and imposing direct rule, the stakes are that highm it not the case of another part of the world that is becoming antiestablishment and anti—austerity and would like its own sake? nationalism is on the rise? —— phone said. it is the world order of today —— its own say. said. it is the world order of today -- its own say. the stakes are high, because it is determining whether a country stays together or parts ways, lincoln won the fight and is regarded as a hero, but the criteria for deciding whether a country is a country is very obvious, you have defined borders, catalonia has those, you have a defined population and you are able in to enter into discussions with other states, and clearly there is enough of a gdp here, this is the richest part of spain and there is enough activity that it could be a state, bigger than some european states, so what is to stop them? let's move on to

the daily telegraph,. as with all of these claims of independence or a change of world order, it affects everybody. yes, we live in a global world. the telegraph are focusing on the potential ramifications for the eu. much of the thrust for independence is based upon the fact catalonia feels they are in a strong position, not just supporting catalonia feels they are in a strong position, notjust supporting the population, but they have a fit of the spanish population and an awful lot of their gdp and they feel they would be strong on their own. across the eu, every nation has a separatist breakaway movement somewhere. cornwall, wales, scotland, parts of belgium and france, corsica and venice. if that was to repeat across the eu, you would have to have i suppose those states that wanted to have some kind of independence, they would have to

feel they also likely to wealth and success on their own. many of them will feel that is not the case, so you won't have all of the eu splintering apart in the same way andi splintering apart in the same way and i doubt that other nations after watching spain will have it in the same way. i put this to both of you, although i want to move on to other stories. the prime minister of spain has put this to a vote, whether this can be trusted or not, remains to be seen, but he has put this to a vote to the people of catalonia. seen, but he has put this to a vote to the people of cataloniam seen, but he has put this to a vote to the people of catalonia. it is ha rd to the people of catalonia. it is hard to imagine the people who voted for independence last time in the face of riot police won't do so again, and the relatives and friends of theirs won't follow their example. madrid has made a real mess of this. if it was just an advisory referendum they should have ignored it. if you are going to have a referendum that is this important, if you're going to call a vote, it

should be a proper referendum, not a revote in parliament, it should be a proper referendum with a binding turnout, you have got to have this many people that will agree with you before you can achieve it. dialogue, as well, which didn't happen. now to another story on the front page of the daily telegraph. this is in relation to a report in the sun newspaper about allegations of sexual harassment in westminster by researchers and other staff of thelj suppose researchers and other staff of the” suppose this is relating to the harvey weinstein scandal, moving into other areas of life and the situation in parliament, if you are an mp and you have an office with staff, they are your employees and they are not parliament's employees. parliament has its own employees, and what this story is