Munster struck an early blow with the outstanding O'Connell diving over the top of a ruck on the edge of the Sale line to score after brilliant work by Keith Earls and Ronan O'Gara.

BBC: Munster 37-14 Sale

Way back in November of 1985, on just its second mission, Atlantis experienced a blow-back of hot gases past the primary O-rings in one of its solid rocket boosters, resulting in serious erosion of said O-ring.

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O'Gara added the extras and Sale suffered another blow four minutes later when Hodgson horribly hooked a chance to cut into Munster's lead.

BBC: Munster 37-14 Sale

Steyn's thumping penalty from 66 metres cut Leinster's lead to 17 points and the home side then suffered a double blow on 57 minutes when VuliVuli scored a glorious individual try and O'Driscoll appeared to pull a hamstring in attempting to halt the Fijian.

BBC: Leinster 38-22 Racing-Metro 92

Both teams needed a positive showing after difficult starts to this campaign, but Villa - for whom Kevin MacDonald is still the caretaker manager after Martin O'Neill's shock exit - were dealt a blow before kick-off as new signing Stephen Ireland got injured in the warm-up.

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But O'Neill insisted that his players will bounce back from their latest blow.

BBC: O'Neill refuses to panic

Munster suffered a blow when Warwick was caught in the face by a stray leg and with no Ronan O'Gara on the bench had to turn to Conan Doyle, an elementary replacement at fly-half.

BBC: Ospreys 21-25 Munster