THE CROWD:

With ticket sales already beyond 20,000 the hope now will be that a new record attendance can be set for the fixture. The benchmark came on 27 December 2015 when 23,642 watched Edinburgh shock Glasgow with a 23-11 victory. Last year’s Edinburgh leg took place on Boxing Day and the crowd dropped back a few thousand but the SRU will be hoping that the feelgood factor from the autumn Tests and a pre-christmas Saturday evening timeslot can push the attendance up.

Edinburgh go into the match with nine wins out of ten under their belt and brimming with confidence. This game will be a key acid test in regards to how we assess how far the undoubted revival has come. It’s not just the results that have been positive, the brand of rugby played under Richard Cockerill, pictured, has been a marked improvement on recent years and the spiky Englishman is sure to have his troops fired up for this. Edinburgh teams who have been struggling have had a habit of raising their game against Glasgow of late so it will be fascinating to see how a capital side on form goes. They remain underdogs, however, against Dave Rennie’s Glasgow, who have had setbacks in Europe but run amok in the Guinness Pro14 this season with a perfect record to defend.