No reason a Scottish team can’t make it to a final

RUGBY’S focus turns from domestic competitions towards Europe next weekend with the start of the Champions and Challenge Cup competitions kicking off.

Both tournaments will come to a climax in May, 2017, with the Finals in Edinburgh.

Wouldn’t it be great if there was a Scottish team playing a final in front of a home crowd?

Glasgow’s campaign begins with a home tie against Leicester, who have been in mixed form this year but aren’t the force that they once were.

Also in Glasgow’s group are Munster – and the same could be said of the Irish province – while French team Racing 92 are the final team in the pool.

It is not as daunting a group as has been in the past and Gregor Townsend must be challenging his players to finish top of the pool in order to qualify for the knock-out stages, for once.

It’ll be essential to get off to a winning start and in that regard, a tie at Scotstoun as an opening match could not be better.

Glasgow’s home support have been magnificent this season and they have rewarded their fans with some incredibly intense rugby to admire.

The Warriors will have to lift themselves to another level however in this European competition, but there is no reason why that cannot happen.

A good run in European rugby would give Townsend a fitting send off before he moves to the National team.

Edinburgh, on the other hand, have not had the ideal start to their season and in many respects, their pool is tougher than Glasgow’s in the premier competition.

Joining the Scots are Harlequins and Stade Francais with the Romanian team from Timisoara making up the group.

The Romanian side are likely to be the whipping boys, but Harelquins and Stade will offer Edinburgh very tough opposition and getting out of the group is going to be a real challenge.

Edinburgh will have taken comfort from their convincing win against Treviso under the guidance of caretaker coach, Duncan Hodge, before travelling to the north-west of Romania for their opening match and they should be targeting a victory with a bonus point to set their campaign off on the right foot.

Edinburgh’s real challenges await them in France and London, which means they must win all of their home games to put pressure on the other teams in the group.

Glasgow have a golden opportunity to do something special in a competition in which they have shown great form, but only sporadically. Winning at home will be critical, but Glasgow shouldn’t fear opponents on the road either.

It’s time the Warriors stepped up.