LET’S start by congratulating Redingensians Rams skipper Robbie Stapley and his men for convincingly brushing aside last Saturday’s visitors Clifton 43-16.

It moved Rams up to third in the National 2 South table behind the two tearaway front-runners, Chinnor and second-placed Cinderford.

I hope they keep it going this Saturday when they go to London Irish Wild Geese as they are the only local side in league action.

Elsewhere, there was a mixed bag of results last weekend. My boys Reading had and excellent 53-23 home win over Gosford All Blacks.

It was another solid performance from this young side under the leadership of Ryan Smith who is doing a great job as stand-in skipper with a 100% win record.

Some frustrating decisions went against us, but Ryan kept the team focused and they scored eight tries as a result.

We had the push in the scrums and both second rows, Ash Chapman and Smith, were prominent and James Mitchell was outstanding at full back and was involved in several tries on top of the two he scored.

Gosford also scored some very good tries, so the excellent crowd we had were certainly entertained.

There was disappointment for Reading Abbey who lost 34-27 at Wallingford. Abbey did not have their normal pack last Saturday so the backs had to do a lot more work than normal and this took its toll!

Well-done to fourth placed Thatcham who saw off Aylesbury 17-14 at home, while Beaconsfield hammered visiting Drifters 113-0!

But it wasn’t the highest-winning margin of the day as Chippenham crushed Wimborne 124-3, Must be all that Christmas spirit kicking in!

At professional level, Wasps, Bath and Gloucester were the only English teams to win last weekend. If this keeps up there may not be an English side in the finals of this season’s European Champions Cup!

London Irish also had a day to forget after snatching defeat from the jaws of victory against Stade Francais at Madejski Stadium.

So that’s it from me for 2017. Happy Christmas and see you in the new year!