Former Scotland and Glasgow Warriors second-row Tim Swinson has come out of retirement to sign a 12-month contract with fallen English giants Saracens in the English Championship next season, as they look to bounce back following their enforced relegation out of the Premiership for a salary cap breaches

The 33-year-old announced that he was hanging up his boots last month but couldn’t resist a change of heart when the former English and European champions phoned up looking for an experienced second-row.

Swinson grew up a few miles from Saracens’ old Bramley Road ground, played his first game of mini-rugby as a curtain-raiser for one of the club’s matches back in the 1990s, and says it is a team he has always wanted to play for.

The fact that it offers the opportunity to link up with old Newcastle Falcons team-mates Ian Peel and Joe Shaw was another pull factor in his decision to lace up the boots again.

He will initially split his time between his parents’ home in London and his current base in Glasgow, whilst combining rugby with studying for a law degree from Robert Gordon University. He plans to carry on as Chair of Rugby Players Scotland, the association which represents the interests of Scotland’s professional rugby players.