IT was a dismal weekend for our sides, but for once it was London Irish who produced a ray of light with a fine second-half performance to secure a 47-17 European Challenge Cup victory at home to Russian raiders Krasny Yar.

Exiles were trailing 10-7 at half time, but six tries after the break – including four for man-of-the-match Theo Brophy Clews – helped them ease home ahead of a trip to Georgia to play the return fixture this Saturday.

Sadly for Redingensians Rams, their five-match unbeaten National Two South run came to an end last weekend as they went down to second-placed Chinnor by a whisker, 31-29.

It was a stunning game in front of a huge crowd and a credit to what Rams are doing, it’s just a shame their late comeback was not enough.

Things get no easier for Seb Reynolds’ men, though, as they travel to table-toppers Cinderford this Saturday – they’ve only lost once in 18.

It was a bad day at the office for my boys Reading, as we were thrashed 61-19 at home by county rivals Windsor, who were much improved from the last time we met and who played some flowing rugby.

Our constant mistakes kept them interested and basically we were just not good enough on the day. Sadly, Windsor outplayed us in most departments.

I think this was a wake-up call for the guys for the first league game of 2018 and certainly very disappointing for the crowd who attended.

We have just got to put in a much better performance this week and cut out the stupid errors. I am sure we can get our heads on and get back to playing some good rugby at Beaconsfield, but we’ll certainly need too as they are top of the league and must surely be confident on promotion.

A depleted Reading Abbey – who are two points and one place above us in sixth – faired little better as they were thrashed 47-11 at Aylesbury. They struggled to field their usual back-line due to player unavailability, and they’ll be hoping to have some back for a tough game at home to second-placed Buckingham on Saturday.

Lastly, Berkshire Shire Hall were crushed 44-17 at Chipping Norton in the BB&O Championship.