WHAT a weekend it was to start the World Cup.

Hosts Japan began with a nervy, but ultimately, comfortable win against the Russians, while England kicked off with a low-key victory against Tonga and favourites New Zealand showed their credentials with a hard-fought success against South Africa.

Australia were given a fright by Fiji, while Ireland eased past a poor Scottish side, and while all of the matches so far have been pretty entertaining, personally one of the best games was France's narrow win against Argentina.

There was some pretty exciting rugby throughout the 80 minutes and France were very lucky to come out of it with a win.

It was great to see our local clubs had lots of people watching the games on their big screens and boosting the club's revenues.

On the local front, London Irish had a massive win to start their Premiership Rugby Cup campaign at Gloucester, and let’s hope this continues at home to Harlequins on Saturday.

However, the stars of local rugby at the moment are Rams, who put in another big performance to win at Darlington Mowden Park.

It’s three out of three in National one, and that is a very impressive start to their season, especially bearing in mind they are playing at a whole new level.

This week they are at home to Chinnor, who are no strangers to them as they have played them many times in the past when they were both in National Two South. It could be a great game to watch.

As for my boys Reading, it wasn't so good as we were edged out at Shipston-on-Stour.

It was particularly galling as we led by 10 points five minutes from time, however with Charlie Davies in the sin-bin, we shipped two late tries to lose.

This week we have a derby at home to and both sides will be looking for their first win of the season – let’s hope it's us.

Speaking of Abbey, they did not have a good weekend, having to move their game to Marlow as the Rosehill pitch was too hard, and they suffered a bit of a mauling for their troubles.

Berkshire Shire Hall also suffered a heavy defeat at Reading University, so for our lower sides there is bit of work to do to start turning the losses into wins.