For Kelly Brown, their warm embrace has been particularly welcome after a traumatic Six Nations as non-playing captain of Scotland.
Dropped from a great height by the erratic Scott Johnson after the opening defeat to Ireland, Brown spent the next month combining a cheerleading position for Scotland with a more substantial role on the pitch with his Premiership club.
The healing waters of Harpenden helped to restore Brown to his rightful position with Scotland.
He would love to pay the club back by assisting their passage into the Heineken Cup semifinals tomorrow.
“The Six Nations was interesting. I was disappointed to be dropped after the first game but there was no point in sitting around feeling sorry for myself and in many ways Saracens was the ideal place to come back to because it is such an upbeat club,” he said.
“Whether I play or not I am still a leader in the Scottish set-up and I had to do as much as I could to make sure the squad was as best prepared as it could be.
“All I could do in that situation was to play and train as hard as I could and I feel I did that and managed to get myself back into the Scotland side for the final two games.
“Playing Ulster will be very similar to playing an international game. If you look at the two squads there are a lot of internationalists playing.
“We are aware the game is going to be a step up but we’re looking forward to testing ourselves against a top European side.”
If a Scot wants to play in Europe’s knockout stages he pretty much has to leave his homeland – only once in the past decade has a Scottish team reached the last eight – but the sense is that there is a wider appeal for Brown in being at Saracens beyond naked ambition.
Kelly Brown"s eyes set firmly on Sarries payback
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