There’s fresh optimism at Maidstone Rugby Club following a difficult few years.

The club are rebuilding in Kent 2 after slipping down the leagues in recent seasons.

A summer recruitment drive virtually doubled the 1st XV squad and while they’ve lost their opening two fixtures, Maidstone are looking at the bigger picture.

They host Southwark Lancers at the Mote this Saturday in their first home game.

“It’s been a tough four or five years for the club,” said director of rugby Steve Oram, who has coached at Aylesford, Blackheath and Canterbury.

“I joined just as Covid shut everything down and it was difficult coming into the club for various reasons.

“They’d tumbled down the leagues and it’s a vicious circle.

“You get relegated, you lose players and you can’t recruit new ones because who wants to play for a falling club? By definition, you fall again.

“Unfortunately, and it happens to many clubs, you have to go a long way down before you reach rock-bottom, which is where we were at last season.

“One of the problems was a distinct lack of players.

“When I joined, I counted maybe 20 who I thought could play 1st XV rugby, which isn’t enough for a season.

“We set out on a recruitment programme which, coming out of Covid, was quite a tough project but we managed to add enough players, so we currently have 30-35 who can play 1st XV rugby.

“A lot of them are young, a lot of them are university returners who used to play for the club, there’s six or seven of those, and we’ve got quite a few from our successful colts section.

“If you’d said to me at the end of last season, you’ll end up with a squad almost double the size, I’d have laughed at you.

"But, thanks to a lot of hard work from a lot of people, we’ve managed to do it and it’s changed the atmosphere in the club.

“It’s encouraging. We’re not going to fix everything this year - we’ve lost our first two games - but our ambition is to be playing two or three leagues up from where we are now.

“That doesn’t happen overnight, it’s growth from within and some external recruitment while retaining our amateur, no-payment status in terms of players.”

Maidstone lost their opening game 26-17 at Westcombe Park 2nds, followed by a 26-7 defeat at Vigo last Saturday.

Ball retention was an issue in both matches but there were plenty of positives.

“Both Westcombe Park 2nds and Vigo are experienced sides and they’ll quite happily take a game off you,” said Oram.

“In both games, we probably had more possession and better territory but we weren’t as clinical and we were too loose.

“With ball in hand, we surrendered possession one way or another 20 times in each game.

“When you’re giving the ball away 20 times it not only negates your ability to score, it increases your opponents’ chance to score.

“We’ve got young, enthusiastic lads who sometimes go a little off-script, which doesn’t help, but you understand that.

“They’re so excited and pumped to be playing that, with the greatest of respect, they all think they’re Marcus Smith and start trying stuff we’re not coaching.

“That’s basically the tale of the two games we’ve played but I made the point in my first briefing that we won’t click until Christmas.

“A lot of the guys were saying ‘I don’t know about that’ but I said it again in the circle on Saturday and there are lots of nodding heads now.

“I’m not looking to win 50-0 every week, I just want us to play our patterns and play the way we want to play."