I WILL start by congratulating Dylan Hartley’s England lads on their superb 37-21 defeat of Australia at Twickenham on Saturday.

What a performance, especially in the second half. The celebrations at my club Reading went on well into the evening!

That’s 14 wins on the bounce for England, so Eddie Jones and his back-room boys must be doing something right.

The question is, can they keep this going through the Six Nations, win every game and beat the All Blacks record of 18 unbeaten games? Personally I think they can.

Jones has turned this squad of players into an exciting team. It is a great time for English rugby!

The victory completed England’s four-match autumn series and it’s now eyes-down for the Six Nations that kicks-off on Saturday, February 4 with England facing France at Twickenham, while Scotland take on Ireland and Italy face Wales the following day.

Closer to home, there were mixed fortunes for our local clubs last weekend.

Redingensians Rams were truly frustrated by their one-point defeat to third-placed Bishop Stortford at Old Bath Road. They’ll hope their luck changes for their trip to Worthing this Saturday.

My boys Reading again lost out, this time at home to SW1 front-runners Maidenhead.

The guys put everything into it but Maids did the basics very well and made few errors. You can see why they are just one point off the top.

We go to third-placed Newbury this weekend and then host table-topping Old Patesians before the Christmas break and we definitely need to get something from these games. We’re seven points from league safety so it’s time to batten down the hatches and put some wins on the board.

Reading Abbey beat Grove at Rose Hill to go fifth in the SW1 table. It will be interesting to see how they do against Maidenhead this weekend. Personally I don’t think they have any worries as they have really done well in this league so far.

As all the internationals are now over, please make the effort to watch and support your local clubs. There’s some great entertaining rugby being played.