NATIONAL League Rugby chairman John Inverdale is looking forward to another action-packed season with the curtain being pulled up at Old Bath Road on Saturday afternoon.

Rams host newly-promoted National Two South champions Esher – where Inverdale is deputy President – to kick the season off, and the former BBC and ITV broadcaster expressed his excitement during a chat with the league’s website recently, reflecting on what a terrific product is on offer.

He explained: “I’m genuinely excited about it. The battle to win National One and get into the Championship is really intriguing this year – there’s a lot to look forward to.

“I went to 27 clubs during the course of last season, and I don’t think, maybe I got lucky, one match where I thought ‘gosh, that was an absolute stinker’.

“I got back in the car wherever I’d been and I thought ‘Do you know, that was good – and sometimes it was better than good.’

He continued: “That’s perhaps the challenge for National League Rugby as an entity is to get people to understand – not from within, because anyone can preach to the converted – outside our level of the game, both upwards and downwards, to get respect from the Premiership and Championship, about how good some of the teams and players are.

“National League Rugby is an amazing shop window for the sport in this country, not just in its geographical spread, but also what it can offer to every sector in society.

“There are so many elements to a National League club, from the players, to the backroom, to the sponsors, to the wider community, and all those elements are key in making the cake whole.”

To book tickets for the seasonal opener, click here