Glasgow Warriors first and, to date, only European Champions Cup quarter-final appearance was a chastening experience last year.

Having yet again failed to get to the knockout stages the previous season when they had gone into the competition believing themselves to have joined Europe’s elite when winning the Pro12, everything had been thrown at that campaign as they sought to prove that they had not merely been beneficiaries of a brief period of rebuilding in Irish rugby when winning that title.

Just as when Edinburgh reached the semi-finals in what was then the Heineken Cup four years earlier, only to finish second bottom of that season’s Pro12, so European competition was clearly prioritised in a campaign which saw Glasgow fail to reach the Pro12 play-offs for the first time in six years and only the second time ever.

They duly managed to get through, but only as the second best of the pool runners-up, which resulted in a visit to the top seeds and defending champions. It is difficult to interpret the 38-13 thrashing they then suffered at the hands of Saracens as anything other than what is commonly described in modern sporting parlance, as a reality check.

As well as the start of a new campaign and another opportunity to prove themselves genuinely competitive against Europe’s best, Sunday’s visit of the English champions represents an opportunity for some of those involved to redeem themselves and, according to their international hooker Fraser Brown, the process of doing that begins with not repeating the same mistakes in the way they prepared for that match.

“It was physical. I remember it pretty well. Not just the game, but the whole week in general, I think we probably got our build up a little bit wrong, we focused a bit too much on them and not ourselves,” he admitted

Now under new management they know it is about getting the balance right instead of exposing themselves to the risk of what has been termed as paralysis by analysis.

“We do our due diligence on teams, scouting them properly and getting good analysis but it’s really important this week that we focus on ourselves, our set-piece, our defence and how we can unlock the Sarries defence with our attack,” Brown continued.

“The set-piece will be a big battleground, they’ve got a strong lineout and a strong lineout drive defensively from our point of view but it’s important to make sure our scrum and lineout function properly and give us the ball to allow us to move them around, keep possession and play in their areas of the pitch.”

Last season, just a few months after that Saracens mauling and with head coach Dave Rennie having only been in charge for a few weeks, familiar failings were exposed when they made promising starts to their first two European ties only to be bullied out of both games by Exeter Chiefs and Leinster.

Glasgow believe they have addressed the areas that have been of greatest concern, but such is the traditional gulf between the Pro12 and Europe - as exemplified last year when they had a 100 per cent winning record in the domestic competition while having exited the Champions Cup at that stage without registering a win in their four pool matches to that point – they cannot be sure until Sunday’s encounter with Saracens which will surely set the tone for what is to come.

“We’ve made pretty good strides from where we were last year both attack and defence,” Brown reckoned

“We’ve had a couple of disappointments when our drill hasn’t been great, mostly in attack, but we’ve had a big focus on training through the week to push up standards wherever possible and that has a knock-on effect at the weekend.

“If you drive that from the start of the week and make sure we’re really efficient there then come game game day we’re operating with a little tiny margin of error and that’s where we want to be.

“Defensively it’s not just stopping the drive it’s the defensive lineout and putting pressure on there. (Ryan) Wilson, Jonny (Gray), Bob Harley put in a lot of work there and we’ve got one of the top lineout defences in the league at the minute so that’s an area we’ll look to take on.”

In saying so he readily acknowledges that for all the praise their style of play has received in recent years, there is a significant point to prove in competitive terms.

“We’re very determined,” said Brown.

“Other than two years ago we haven’t had very much of an impact in Europe and we can perform as well as we can in the league and get to semi-finals and finals but if you want to be taken seriously on a European stage you have to perform well in Europe.

“And that can’t just be a one-off, getting to one quarter final.

“It’s something we want to do again and if we have ambitions of being one of the biggest clubs in Europe you have to perform on this stage.

“There’s no bigger test than a first game at home than Sarries.”