Continental glory remains the final frontier when it comes to Scottish rugby’s twin professional representatives.
Neither club has won a European trophy, with Edinburgh finishing as Challenge Cup runners-up in 2015 and Glasgow doing likewise in 2023.
Their respective records in the Champions Cup are not much to write home about either.
The high watermark for Edinburgh was their 2012 semi-final defeat to Ulster, while Glasgow have never progressed beyond the last eight, a feat they have managed three times but not since 2019.
Motivation, then, will not be in short supply for either club or their South African head coaches when they re-enter the European arena this weekend.
For Glasgow, it is a chance to show the squad that Franco Smith has meticulously compiled and crafted over the last three seasons can live with the elite of European rugby.
Franco Smith is looking for Euro glory with Glasgow after success in URC last season
Ednburgh head coach Sean Everitt could do with a good run in Challenge Cup
Warriors’ progression since Smith was appointed as head coach in the summer of 2022 has been on a steady upwards trajectory.
The only serious blip in that time was that heavy Challenge Cup final defeat to Toulon at the end of his first season in charge.
Smith took that one on the chin and bounced back to lead his team to the United Rugby Championship title the next season, winning away at Munster and the Bulls in the playoffs.
That helped soften the blow of a Champions Cup last 16 exit to a Harlequins side led by Smith’s predecessor, Danny Wilson, who clearly enjoyed giving his former club a bloody nose.
The expectation this season, however, is that Warriors are ready to go one or two steps further, even if their pool stage results were again a mixed bag.
Sale Sharks and Racing 92 were both trounced at Scotstoun, a venue where away victories are sighted about as regularly as Halley’s Comet. Away from home, however, it remains a different story for Glasgow.
They lost narrowly in Toulon and were again beaten by Harlequins at the Stoop, a result that brought ramifications for their potential path through this competition. Warriors may be able to go on the road in the URC and win at notoriously difficult venues but doing so in the hotbeds of French and English rugby remains largely beyond them.
Finishing second in Pool 4 did at least generate a winnable home last 16 tie against Leicester Tigers on Saturday night.
George Horne scores against Sale Sharks as Glasgow make their way to the last 16
Sione Tuipulotu scores the fourth Warriors try as they defeat Racing 92 at Scotstoun
Scotstoun would be nobody’s idea of a sporting fortress in the traditional sense but, for whatever reason, it works for Glasgow, although they were beaten there by English opposition – Northampton Saints – in this competition last season which ought to serve as a warning.
There are other reasons that make this tie more intriguing than would otherwise be the case.
Tigers are still on the hunt for a new head coach for next season and Smith’s name is in the mix.
A home win at the weekend would not only take Glasgow through to the quarter-finals but would also enhance Smith’s reputation among his potential future employers.
The same could apply on a wider scale, too. The South African has been repeatedly coy about his plans after being linked with the Wales job but, with just a year left on his Glasgow contract, he will be keen to show he is capable of leading any of the world’s leading clubs or countries.
Demonstrating that he has the capacity to go deep in the Champions Cup, especially against superior, better-resourced opposition, would serve as a massive feather in his cap and likely bring him to the wider attention of would-be suitors.
Not finishing top of their pool, however, comes with consequences.
Should Warriors get past a Tigers side smarting from their weekend loss to Saracens, then there is every chance they would then be pitted against Leinster away from home in the quarter-finals.
Glasgow may have won away to Munster in their URC playoff semi-final but Leinster, the four-times Champions Cup holders and runners-up in each of the last three seasons, would represent a much more formidable hurdle.
The Dublin province are having an incredible season, unbeaten in Europe and having only lost their first league game – in South Africa – a fortnight ago.
If Warriors could get past Tigers on Saturday then go to Leinster and win the following weekend, then the rest of Europe would need to sit up and take notice.
Along the M8 at Edinburgh, a run deep into the Challenge Cup might be the difference between Sean Everitt keeping his job or looking for a new one.
The capital club have been infuriatingly inconsistent for too many years now.
Having failed to make the URC playoffs in each of the last two seasons, they still have a bit of work to do if they’re to end that drought and make the post-season for the first time since 2022.
Tom Dodd celebrates his try as Edinburgh beat Bayonne at the Hive stadium
Europe, though, could yet be their salvation. Strangely, it might actually be easier for Edinburgh to win the Challenge Cup than to challenge for the URC.
After losing their opening pool game at Gloucester, they came back to win their next three matches against Bayonne, Vannes and Black Lion to top the table.
Their next mission is a home tie on Friday night against the Emirates Lions, just six days after Glasgow mauled the South Africans 42-0.
Failing to win that one, even without the injured Duhan van der Merwe, would serve to highlight the gulf between the two Scottish clubs and also add to the pressure on Everitt’s shoulders amid another unconvincing campaign.
Win, however, and it would mean another home tie against either Bayonne or the Bulls in the last eight.
Come through that one and it would potentially set up an intriguing match-up with Stuart Hogg’s Montpellier in the semi-final and then, possibly, Connacht in the final.
As schedules go, it’s not the toughest. But when it comes to Scottish clubs in Europe, it’s often the hope that kills you.
