In recent year Bristol Bears has been a club to offer players who have slipped through the gaps of top flight rugby a second chance.
Amongst the superstar names, director of rugby Pat Lam and his coaching team have found rough cut gems and polished them into top Premiership players with the likes of Piers O'Conor - let go by Wasps, Henry Purdy - let go by Gloucester, and Jake Woolmore - let go by Exeter Chiefs, who were all plying their trade in the Championship when signed by the club.
Now all three men are almost certain to make Bristol's strongest matchday 23 this season with the Bears sitting top of the Gallagher Premiership.
It is a story which has repeated itself at the Bears.
Last spring Lam brought in little used Leinster squad player Bryan Bryne on a short term deal; with Harry Thacker rehabbing from surgery on his neck, Bryne has been in the club's first choice hooker all season and has excelled.
In the summer, when rugby resumed Lam signed former Connacht winger Niyi Adeolokun and prop Peter McCabe on short-term deals only to see the pair earn contract extensions and now he has offered former Connacht Academy, Ireland U20s and Saracens hooker Tadgh McElroy the chance to do the same thing.
McElroy, 23, has been brought in on a four week trial, having dropped out of the top flight ranks.
McElroy has arrived with Connacht scrum half Stephen Kerins who arrives on a month long loan from the Pro14 club.
Lam said: “We’re light at hooker and scrum half, so it’s good to bring these guys in to bolster our depth over a busy period for the club.
“They’ve arrived at the Bears High Performance Centre and will integrate with the squad with immediate effect."
McElroy's rugby career has been full of turbulence, with his decision to turn down a Connacht academy contract in favour of trying his luck in London at Saracens costing him a place in the Ireland U20s team with the IRFU dropping him for the tournament in Georgia which opened up the way for Leinster's Ronan Kelleher who has gone on to earn nine caps for the Ireland senior team already.
The same month McElroy moved to England, so to did former Connacht boss Pat Lam to take the reins at Bristol Bears.
After two season's at Saracens and stuck behind world class talents of the likes of England stars Jamie George and Jack Singleton, not to mention Springbok Schalk Brits, McElroy parted company with the English side only to suffer a bad hamstring injury as he was in talks to sign with a number of Championship sides.
That left him in contract limbo.
Since then McElroy has been playing for Clontarf in the All-Ireland club league and working part-time in personal gym training.
Now he is ready to rewrite the narrative around his career.
Speaking to RugbyPass back in February last years, McElroy said: “Anyone who knows me, I’m pretty soft off the field but when I’m on it I’m different.
"It’s just the thing with the 20s, I feel like it’s hanging over me.
"Everyone knew me from that and they were like, ‘there is Tadgh, blah, blah, blah, he’s a bit of mad man, a bit of a header’. But I’m not that. I’m a nice lad if you get to know me.
“I just want to get that hangover over.
"I have spoken to people in the IRFU and it was like ‘that was forgotten about as soon as you landed over in England’.
"That was all forgotten about and I was like of course, but obviously there is social media. You do notice it and you do rate the online comments.”
McElroy may just have arrived at the perfect club, but he will have stiff competition from the likes of Will Capon and George Kloska who have been holding down the fort impressively when called upon so far this season.
