Next step at Edinburgh is how to make mark in Europe

THE Heineken Cup is heading for a sell-out with a late release of 1,000 tickets almost all going yesterday, but when Leicester and Leinster come together at Murrayfield on Saturday night it should be a match that Scottish players watch just as keenly.

Glasgow players arguably have their Magners League campaign to sort out as a priority next season, but Edinburgh have moved onto another level in their bid to compete with the best teams in the Celtic nations.

Their second-place finish can be attributed to positive and negative aspects of the league – critics might point to wins over weakened sides at the top of the league, for instance – but, in fact, those are games that have tripped Scots up, and other leading sides, in the past.

Second was a fine achievement and provides a serious building block in the current Edinburgh squad's development. Had they played to their full potential, and been more consistent, they could certainly have won the league, but the real litmus test for the pro game remains in the European arena.

Edinburgh dipped in again this year and dipped out all too quickly, players struggling to perform on the grandest of stages, when the intensity was at its greatest.

They claimed back-to-back wins over French opposition in mid-table Castres for the first time, and they were competitive and showed they had the ability to rattle Wasps and Leinster home and away, but did not do enough to get over the line.

When the show rolls on to their front garden on Saturday, the intensity, excitement, colour and the heady sense of achievement should provide deep inspiration. Both teams have been beaten at Murrayfield in the past 18 months, so Edinburgh have the talent to be in the knock-out mix, but they still lack the belief to get there.

They undoubtedly led the way in the Scottish professional game again this season, and while inspirational coach Andy Robinson claimed much of the plaudits, there were many reasons why the squad from the capital city are finally lifting Scottish rugby's head above the parapet.

A couple of years ahead of Glasgow's development, the Edinburgh squad are maturing into their mid-20s, with players in key positions, such as Mike Blair, Phil Godman, Ben Cairns, Allister Hogg and Ross Ford adding leadership skills to those leads offered by the more seasoned Matt Mustchin and Chris Paterson.

The most pressing concern for supporters is what happens to that development if Robinson moves from the Edinburgh hut inside Murrayfield to take up the Scotland reins.

Nic Cartwright, the Edinburgh chief executive, said: "We don't want Andy to leave and we hope, selfishly perhaps, that he will remain our coach for next season, but we have had to look at the possibility that he won't be in charge, and we're confident that we can move forward without him as head coach.

"He has a huge passion for the club and even as Scotland coach he would never be more than 100 yards away from us, so we envisage him still having an input. He would help us recruit our new coach, and provided we bring in a good replacement, then to also have Andy close by as Scotland coach there would be no reason why we could not continue to build on this season.

"Andy has been good for us, of course, but he is just one person – there is a great squad of players, excellent assistant coaches and fitness team, and a great backroom team that play a huge part in moving Edinburgh forward, and their drive won't change."

In terms of how Edinburgh move forward, the key is tightening everything up again – cutting out the errors, the concentration lapses and stage-fright on the big European stages. The real hope and expectation lies within the potential only glimpsed so far of players such as Godman, Ford, Cairns, Nick De Luca, and flankers Alan MacDonald, Ross Rennie and Roddy Grant to prove themselves as international class.

They need a harder, more destructive pack. The acquisition of Scott MacLeod had the potential to be shrewd if the Borderer does what Robinson expects and becomes a better player than he was when wearing the Scotland jersey last year, while the development of the front row, technically and physically, is crucial to make the team consistently competitive. They remain short of the funding of the leading English, French, Irish and Welsh clubs, and so have to punch above their weight again, but that is invariably the Scottish challenge.

The ambition is certainly there. Cartwright added: "People said this time last year that we'd have to go some to better that season, or that we'd have second-season syndrome, but we have done that and haven't suffered that, and the aspiration is to keep improving. Others will too, and the Magners League and Heineken Cup are incredibly tough, but the key will be to build on the systems and progress we have made rather than changing structures and starting again, and with or without Andy in the head coach role we can do that."

Crowds at Edinburgh and Glasgow have risen again this season – to averages of 4,309 and 3,144 respectively – and Edinburgh's season ticket sales are ahead of where they were at this time last season, which suggests the hard core of supporters believe there is more to come in 2009-10. Those floating supporters, many of whom helped create a record crowd of 12,534 for the Glasgow derby in December due to a free ticket from the autumn Tests, are still to be convinced.

Saturday's European finale will show the level that has to be reached, and while it is disappointing that, again, the only Scottish involvement will be as the match host, the 80 minutes should underline that there is nothing in this competition for Scottish teams to be afraid of.