WITH no game last weekend the London Irish players will be champing at the bit to get out there on the Madejski Stadium turf this Sunday (3pm) and let their pent-up frustrations out on visitors Bedford Blues.

Irish are unbeaten in the opening two games having seen off Ealing 20-7 and Nottingham 52-20.

Bedford are not to be sneezed at as they have won two of their opening three games, beating Nottingham 27-21 and Jersey 26-22, but have also lost 34-27 at Coventry.

So it should be a cracker!

On the local club front, it has been a great start to the season for many of our teams and their supporters alike as they’ve been stacking up the points.

Not the least of which are Rob Stapley’s Rams, the early National 2 South table-toppers with three wins out of three having totted up 128 points to just 38 against.

That includes last Saturday’s 43-13 pummelling of visitors Henley Hawks so, hopefully, Rams can maintain that momentum with their trip to fifth-placed Old Albanians this weekend.

Unfortunately, last Saturday was not a happy one for both Reading Abbey and `my boys’ Reading.

Abbey, having kicked-off the league season so well beating Littlemore 38-17 at home, were themselves on the end of heavy 43-8 defeat at Marlow.

At Holme Park, Reading also suffered an embarrassing 48-17 home defeat to Berkshire rivals Windsor. Our defence was not what it should have been and our coach Ben Wills will have to do some hard work in training on that with the lads.

Anyway it’s a Saturday off this week with no league game to occupy the minds and bodies, so let’s hope both sides can sharpen up before their next outing on Saturday week (September 29) when they face each other in a derby battle up at Abbey’s Rosehill.

Finally, well done to Berkshire Shire Hall who’ve won their two opening BB&O Championship games including last Saturday’s 72-5, thrashing of visitors Winslow.

A tremendous start for them, so let’s wish them well and hope that they can maintain their early momentum away to Abingdon this weekend.