Bedford Blues bounced back from last week's defeat at the hands of Ealing Trailfinders with a hard fought win at The Mennaye. Blues skipper, Alex Day, provided the only try in an attritional first half, before his opposite number, Alex Schwarz, dotted down for the Pirates after the restart. Iwan Jenkins and Will Maisey both kept the scoreboard ticking over from the tee, before a frantic finish saw both sides cross the whitewash in the dying stages of the game, including a stellar Sean French try set up by Matt Worley.

Harry Bazalgette racked up 13 points from the tee for Hartpury at the Alpas Arena, but it wasn't enough to stop Ealing Trailfinders from recording back-to-back bonus-point wins. The indomitable Rayn Smid crossed twice in the first half, either side of Billy Twelvetrees' first try for his new club, while Harry Short's try for Hartpury saw the hosts trail by just three points heading into the break. Hartpury replacement, Michael Austin, crossed twice in the second half, but the Trailfinders saw out the win with three more scores from Jonah Holmes, Oliver Newman, and Andrew Davidson. 

Cambridge had a tough home Championship debut against a prolific Doncaster Knights side. The visitors raced into a 35-point lead in the first half, with Alex Dolly taking just three minutes to open the Knights' account en route to the first hat-trick of the 2023/24 Championship season. Billy McBride, Jack Metcalf, and Connor Edwards added three more in the first half, before Elias Caven's try for Cambridge seven minutes after the restart momentarily stemmed the relentless flow of Knights pressure. Doncaster responded with a Joe Margetts double, and followed that up with a late Cameron Terry score, but it was Cambridge who had the last word, when Matt Collins crossed for a last-gasp consolation try.

Nottingham kept up their points perfect start to the season with a bonus-point win against Ampthill, scoring seven tries against their opponents for the second match in a row. Ampthill started brightly, scoring twice inside the opening twenty minutes through Ben Chapman and Harvey Beaton, but The Archers' back line was in imperious form yet again, as tries from Joe Woodward, Harry Graham, Morgan Bunting, and Marcus Ramage saw the hosts bring up the bonus point inside 40 minutes. Second half tries from Josh Skelcey and Peter White saw The Mob take a narrow lead with 20 minutes left to play, but Nottingham rallied late on to secure the win with tries from Clayver Joussain, Harry Clayton, and a second from Marcus Ramage. 

Coventry put in an impressive performance against Caldy to get their Championship campaign off to the strongest possible start. Nyle Davidson crossed early on the visitors, who did well to limit Coventry to one Ryan Hutler try with the clock ticking down to half time, when Matt Kvesic powered over to give the hosts a nine-point lead at the interval. But in the second half, there would be only one side racking up points on the scoreboard. George Smith and Louis James added two more shortly after the restart, and Tom Ball added a fifth in the 51st minute. With Caldy struggling to contain Coventry in the closing stages, Hutler and Smith both crossed for their second tries of the match to seal an emphatic win and a clear early sign that Alex Rae's men will be one of the teams to watch this season.