Our pro pair can end 2014 on a Euro high

WITH a full house of nearly 7,000 fans cheering them on at Scotstoun this Saturday, Glasgow Warriors have every chance of getting a vital bonus-point wi n over Toulouse in the European Rugby Champions Cup.

Meanwhile, Edinburgh have won their first three matches in the European Challenge Cup and have a great opportunity of beating London Welsh away from home on Sunday.

Some might say it is too early to get ahead of ourselves, with more group games still to come in January but, if both Glasgow and Edinburgh qualif y f or t heir respective knockout stages, can you imagine the lift it will give Scottish rugby in the early months of World Cup year?

With our national side already on a high, four youth academies having been opened by the SRU and £ 20million in the coffers of the governing body after they sold the Murrayfield naming rights to BT, saying farewell t o 2014 with European wins for our t wo professional sides would cap a pretty good year for Scottish rugby.

European success would arguably mean even more to Edinburgh fans, whose team have little chance of winning the Pro12 title. Glasgow, at least, are still in with a shout of being one of the top-four sides who make the end-of-season play-offs.

Edinburgh are sleeping giants in rugby terms and I still find that massive attendance of 37,881 for their 2012 European Cup quarter-final win over Toulouse at Murrayfield — not forgetting the 20,000 fans who turned out for their semi-final defeat to Ulster in Dublin — an absolutely mind-boggling statistic.

Especially when you consider that, since then, they have struggled to get more than 4,000 to their home league games.

The capital remains a big rugby city — with the missing ingredient being a winning club side. A victory this weekend will increase their chances of making the knockouts and, hopefully, have a positive impact on home attendances.

The fans won’t return overnight but the excitement of a European run in the New Year could go a long way to helping the club step out of Glasgow’s shadow.

Wins for both sides would also add a bit of spice to the back-to-back derby matches over the festive period. The first clash, at Scotstoun on Saturday, December 27, is already a 6,945 sell-out, with a healthy crowd expected at BT Murrayfield the following Friday, January 2.