THE 2018/19 season is well and truly up and running there were mixed fortunes for our local clubs.

London Irish have relished their Greene King IPA Championship start, making it two wins from two last Saturday with a 52-20 bonus-point defeat of Madejski Stadium visitors Nottingham.

It featured eight tries including a brace for Italian international Luke McLean, and they were embellished by the unerring boot of fly-half Stephen Myler.

Rams have also started superbly in National Two South, hammering London Irish Wild Geese 41-10.

They are joint-top with similarly unbeaten Henley Hawks – who they happen to face at home this Saturday. That should be a belter.

Coaches Seb Reynolds and Owen Root must be very happy with the Rams squad's progress so far and this Saturday’s match will be a great game to watch as both sides will be wanting to make a firm statement.

Personally, I think the Rams pack should do a job on Henley and be able to provide enough opportunities for the backs to put this game to bed.

As for my boys Reading, we started our Southern Counties North campaign losing 41-10 at home to Marlow.

In the first 10 minutes we did defend well, but then Marlow came out with more pace and speed in the backs to find the space to run in the tries, and going 29 points up before we could reply was too big a hill to climb for a comeback.

On the positive side, our pack put in a great effort, dominating most of the scrums and line-outs.

In the second half we got our act together and started playing some good rugby. We knew this would be a very hard first game and it shows the increase of pace needed to play in the next league up.

Skipper Charlie Davies scored a good try as did Grant Spears, so we do have some positives to take forward to this Saturday's home game against local rivals Windsor.

It’ll be interesting to see how new look Reading Abbey get on at Marlow this Saturday after they secured a five-try home win against Littlemore.

It included a hat-trick from skipper and man-of-the-match Will Bevan, plus seven new faces in the line-up, so coach Luke Harding should be delighted.

Marlow, though, will be a very tough game for them and after playing a side who got promoted to a side who were relegated should give them a good idea of what they could achieve this season.

Lastly, well done to Matt Margot’s Berkshire Shire Hall who beat Phoenix 22-8 in the BB&O Championship. That should put them in excellent spirits for this Saturday’s visit of Winslow.