First and foremost, I'm sure you're all keen to hear about the summer of change at London Irish.

We've got new owners, a new training ground, new players, new coaches and a new chef!

Much has been said of how impressive our new facilities are and I can speak on behalf of the whole squad when I say that they are some of the best I have had the honour of training at.

The pitch is immaculate, the gym is kitted out to the highest spec, an artificial pitch on standby and our chef Alex makes some of the best flapjacks I've ever tasted. I keep offering my friends a tour just to show it off, I'm very proud to say that this is my office!

Getting the win at Newcastle Falcons last weekend was a big result for us.

We've been handed a tough start to the season so to get that first win takes off some of the pressure and allows us to press on with confidence.

It was an interesting game for me playing at full back, but with Homer looking to be out injured for the next six weeks, we all had to step up and move around.

I haven't played at 15 for a few years but I relished the opportunity handed to me and was delighted to get on the score sheet, especially against an old club of mine and with plenty of friends watching in the crowd.

It was the first time I'd suffered some pre-match nerves for a while, but it all seemed to pay off.

The atmosphere at Kingston Park was fantastic and, with their new artificial pitch, there's bound to be some eye catching rugby played in the Toon this season.

That leads us up to this week's preparations with a quick turn around before our first home game at the Mad Stad facing an in-form Saracens team.

We saw on Friday how clinical they can be by putting 39 points on Quins, denying them a single point and doing it all away from home at the Stoop.

We were written off against them the last time we played them and we came away with one of our best results of the season so we'll be striving for a similar performance this Saturday.

On that note, I'll wrap and up and hope to see many of you on match day. In the meantime, if you have any comments and suggestions for my column topics, let me know on twitter @andrewfenby

London Irish host Saracens at Madejski Stadium this Saturday (3pm ko). For tickets go to www.london-irish.com