IT was a disappointing weekend for the majority of our clubs.

London Irish lost heavily at Sale Sharks to drop to second bottom in the table, and it doesn’t get any easier as next up for them is Northampton at Madejski Stadium on Sunday.

Things did go better for Redingensians Rams, though, as they grabbed their second National Two South win of the season with an excellent, high-scoring win at Worthing Raiders.

It’s early days yet to get too excited about their overall prospects for the season ahead, but it’s certainly been an encouraging start with two wins out of three games.

For the remainder of the Reading-based clubs it wasn’t such a profitable Saturday afternoon outing as they tumbled to defeat.

Injuries on the day didn’t help Reading Abbey who were certainly unlucky to miss out on the points as they lost narrowly at home to Aylesbury, while for my boys Reading it was a similar story away to near neighbours Windsor.

However, this again was a much-improved performance in a match where either team could have stolen the honours at the end of 80 minutes.

We defended well and played some good attacking rugby, but just failed to take our chances. However, we picked up a bonus point and I think we are on the right track.

Replacement wing Will Proctor Searle, who has come through from the colts, definitely won’t forget it as he claimed his first try for the club on his debut. So well done to him.

There was defeat too for Berkshire Shire Hall, who were crushed at home by visitors Risborough in their opening BB&O Championship outing of the season.

They make the short hop to Aldermaston, in action for the first time, this Saturday and hoping for better things.

Lastly, what about the All Blacks demolishing South Africa. They ran in eight tries as they thumped South Africa 57-0 in Auckland, their biggest winning margin ever over the Boks.

Former All Black skipper Sean Fitzpatrick was saying on TV prior to the game the Kiwis didn’t have the strongest team out and, I bet, the Boks were glad they didn’t.