If the test is passed, this slowdown could prove short, the subsequent recovery strong and fruitful.

ECONOMIST: A bad time to be an ostrich

Worcester went close to scoring the first try of the game when Neil Best charged down Karl Dickson's clearance kick, only for the subsequent drive to come up narrowly short.

BBC: Worcester Warriors 15-17 Harlequins

In just three short years, the country's horrendous housing bust and subsequent recession have caused government debt to increase from a sustainable 40% of GDP in 2008 to 70% of GDP in 2011.

ECONOMIST: Daily chart

Events subsequent to the Senate lame-duck vote on the New START Treaty only serve to reinforce concerns given short shrift at the time - notably, with respect to the inadvisability of cutting and otherwise allowing the further atrophying of the U.S. nuclear deterrent, at a time when every other nuclear power, including Russia, is modernizing its arsenal.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center For Security Policy

Geraghty should have put the hosts 3-0 up a minute later when he was hauled down 10m short of Perpignan's tryline by a high tackle by Rimas Alvarez, but he completely miscued the subsequent penalty kick from 30m.

BBC: Northampton 34-0 Perpignan