I miss the rain driving horizontally across the pitch; the howling gale rendering even the most robust umbrella impotent; and the lights from the John Dawes Suite struggling manfully to illuminate the pitch.  And so – albeit in the middle of August – it gives me great pleasure to declare the 2009-10 season open!

The first game under the new regime is away to London Irish at Sunbury on Friday evening (14^th August, 7-30pm kick-off).  Welsh were the visitors for the opening of the ground in The Avenue on 5^th December 1931 (the game finished 8-8), and Irish have themselves returned the favour on four occasions – at Hampstead, Hendon, Berrylands and Herne Hill. Friday’s game may yet prove to be our final visit, as Irish have recently announced plans to relocate to a new site in nearby Green Street.  However, as these plans involve the development of some 350 new properties on The Avenue site, it promises to be a long drawn-out process, with the plans due to be presented to local residents at a public meeting next month.  Of course, Irish haven’t used Sunbury as their ‘home’ ground for some 10 years, switching first to The Stoop and then to Reading’s Madejski Stadium where they have signed a long-term agreement until 2026, but The Avenue is still viewed as their spiritual home and houses the amateur arm of the club.

When the Courage Leagues were created in 1987-88, all three Exiles clubs were placed in the second tier. However, whereas Welsh and Scottish have spent some time outside of the senior ranks for various reasons, Irish have gone from strength to strength.  They won both league meetings (13-6 at ODP in 1987-88; 24-19 at Sunbury in 1988-89) before we were relegated, and were first promoted to the top flight at the end of the 1990-91 season.  Despite dropping back down within a couple of years, they quickly re-established themselves in the old Division One and were founding members of the Premiership in 1997-98. Over the past four seasons they have contested a European Challenge Cup Final (losing 36-34 aet to Gloucester at The Stoop); a Heineken Cup semi-final against Toulouse; and last season’s Guinness Premiership final against Leicester, a disappointing 10-9 defeat in front of a Twickenham crowd of over 81,000.

As a consequence, meetings between the two clubs have been few and far betweenin recent years.  We were on the end of a 63-0 defeat in our last meeting, a pre-season friendly at Sunbury on 27^th August 2004 which most Welsh fans will remember for the injury to Matt Fitzgerald which effectively ended his career at this level.