Thank you to our friends at Aviva Premiership for the following post and picture.
London Irish director of Brian Smith was left cursing absent friends as his side slipped to a 27-23 Aviva Premiership defeat at the hands of Exeter Chiefs.
The Devon side's strength was epitomised by the fact that they could afford to leave released England flanker Tom Johnson on the bench.
And the Exiles certainly found it tough work at home as they got off to a disastrous start, watching as Phil Dollman crossed for a try and Gareth Steenson kicked three penalties.
Luke Arscott extended the Chiefs' lead before Leo Halavatu and Topsy Ojo started an Exiles fightback.
Ian Humphreys kicked Irish ahead late on but Steenson replied to boot Exeter Chiefs to a first away win this Aviva Premiership campaign.
"We had eight players away on international duty and we have got another eight players injured so in many ways we had to fight with one hand tied behind our back," he added.
"But we knew that at the beginning of the season and the guys who played all had a crack and gave it 100 per cent and as a coach that's all you can ask for.
"It was just a case of getting a bad start. We made defensive errors because it was a little bit slippy and it cost us tries but it's very rare that a try is scored from one error, it's normally a chain reaction.
"It's an error that is compounded and sometimes there's three errors in a row that lead to a try being scored.
"When you have 15 blokes running around defending you can cover other people's errors but not here, when we made a mistake we got punished for it."
The other Sunday game saw London Wasps sneak past Leicester Tigers 14-12 to maintain their 100 per cent record at Adams Park this season.
Tom Varndell scored an early try before Nick Robinson and half-time replacement Lee Thomas cancelled out the boot of Leicester's George Ford in reply, much to director of rugby Dai Young's joy.
"We gave a lot of penalties away which kept them in the game but some of our young guys out there were great," he said.
"The two young props Simon McIntyre and Phil Swainston did very well, James Cannon in the second row really stood up, Elliot Daly was a real threat out wide and Sam Jones came off the bench and contributed to a good back-row effort again."
Basement-boys Sale Sharks were downed 29-3 at Kingsholm, Akapusi Qera crossing for Gloucester Rugby's only try with Aviva Premeirship Rugby player of the month for October Freddie Burns kicking the rest of the points.
Fly-half Gordon Ross kicked London Welsh into an early lead against Northampton Saints at Franklin's Gardens but the home side came roaring back to win 23-16 thanks to a try from Ken Pisi and the boot of Ryan Lamb.
Top-of-the-table Harlequins suffered their third defeat as Bath Rugby ran out 21-18 victors at the Rec on Friday night.
But Saracens failed to leapfrog them as they also tasted defeat that same evening, going down 12-3 at Worcester Warriors, and director of rugby Mark McCall insisted his side had no excuses.
"Both teams cancelled each other out and there was no flow - it was very depressing. They kicked their goals and we didn't quite kick ours. We made a lot of individual mistakes, not all of them were forced, and our scrum was under pressure," he said.
"We'll have a few players back available next week and some back from injury, possibly Charlie Hodgson could be one of them.
"It's very early to say too much about Jackson Wray's injury, but it is a sprained ankle for now and we'll know more in the next 48 hours."
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