THINGS took another turn for the worse for London Irish, whose 25-17 defeat at Northampton Saints leaves them all but relegated from the Aviva Premiership.

Nick Kennedy’s men actually led at half time, but they conceded three tries in eight minutes to give the game away and leave themselves 16 points behind Worcester – who they host at Madejski Stadium on Sunday.

A win will probably be far too little, too late, but it would be nice for Exiles to give their fans something to celebrate.

It’s a much brighter picture up at Redingensians Rams, though, who pulled off a brilliant 38-31 National Two South victory at Barnstaple.

It keeps fourth-placed Rams level on points with the side above them, Taunton Titans, with seven left to play, and if they finish the season well, I’m sure they could snatch third. That would be an amazing achievement.

As far as my boys Reading and the rest of the local sides were concerned it was, generally, a weekend to forget.

We unfortunately went down 24-20 in our Southern Counties North home game with Wallingford, although we played some good rugby and were very dominant in the scrums in the first half.

However, in the second half, some ill-discipline and some very stupid mistakes cost us the game as the resultant penalties we received were kicked and the visitors took the spoils. We had a pretty decent crowd and, I can tell you, they were all very disappointed with the end result.

There was no joy either for Reading Abbey who took a bit of a hammering at High Wycombe, going down 52-12.

They were hampered by late changes to the line-up, but they, like us, seem to be losing the games that should be winnable ones. I am sure this result must have been a big blow for Abbey’s new head coach Luke Harding, but hopefully they can turn it round – though not in their next game when they host Reading on March 3.

Berkshire Shire Hall couldn’t save the day last weekend either, as they took a right old pasting, 58-5, at Oxford.

All our clubs bar Irish have this weekend off so it’s a chance to rest up the weary bones before the final push to season’s end, but the good news is round three of the Six Nations should keep us entertained, with France hosting Italy on Friday (8pm), before Wales visit Ireland (2.15pm) in what could be a cracker on Saturday.

To round things off, England take on Scotland at Murrayfield in the Calcutta Cup (4.45pm) – that will be some game.