Members at Virgin Active Bromley were greeted by a sea of Elthamian T-shirts last Saturday, as the first team squad took over the gym as part of their pre-season training programme.

The squad have held hourly strength and conditioning sessions there for the last two weekends under the watchful eyes of the club’s conditioning coaches Nico Williams and Renford Bennett, before going across the road to Whitehall Rec to run through rugby-specific coaching drills.

The club are looking to grow the Elthamians brand - and promote sponsors - by getting out into the local community wherever possible and spreading the word in the build-up to the most important season in the club’s history.

Director of Rugby, Gavin Lach said: “We are the biggest corporate member at Virgin Bromley, and we want every member in there, when they sit down for a coffee after working out, to be talking about Old Elthamians. Perhaps it might encourage them to send their son to us to play or they might come and watch the senior sides when they are at home. That’s why every first team squad member has to wear at least one item of OEs kit when they train at Virgin Bromley.

“Several people have already come up to me in the gym, asking when our first games are. We want people talking about us, because it’s all great PR. We want to have a visible presence in the local community – if we pick up just 20 people from the gym coming to watch us, word quickly spreads and before you know it, there’s another 50-60 people in the crowd on a Saturday.”