Last weekend saw the opening matches of the 2012/13 Aviva Premiership season with Wasps kicking things off at Twickenham as they took on Harlequins.  It had earlier been announced by the kit supplier Kukri that the club will be sporting their Twitter handle (@WaspsRugby) on the collar of their shirts for the full season.

We have seen a trend in recent months for teams to show Twitter handles on shirts but this tends to be for one off PR stunts rather than a commitment to build up a follower base over a period of time.  Clubs have many off-line assets that can be use to help in promoting online activities, with the kit being the visible of them.

More and more you can see posters, pitch boards and the like being used to promote Facebook and Twitter to fans on match days.  There is so much opportunity to communicate with a dedicated base that the potential is enormous.

The club also went one step further.  Their players warmed up with kits that showed off their own Twitter handles, a nice way for the club to help boost the players profile on the micro blogging platform.  Rugby at the moment, both Union and League, appear to be embracing the new mediums at an ever increasing rate.  Football is certainly being left behind by the UK’s other sports in the adoption of social media.  Can they catch up or do they even want to?

Here are pics of Tom Varndell and Tom Lindsay sporting his warm up kit prior to the 42-40 defeat to Harleqins.  A game in which Wasps lead 40-13 at one stage before the South London club came back from the brink to take the win in what was one of the most exciting games you’ll see this season.  Not bad for week 1!