Glasgow keen to make most of Sunday showdowns

Glasgow and Edinburgh have worked tirelessly to make Friday nights a popular rugby night in Scotland, but such is the standing of the Scottish teams in Europe that despite the odd big win over sides like Toulouse, Wasps, Leinster and Stade Francais the scheduling of their games depends largely on their opposition.

Glasgow are in a tough pool with Bath, Leinster and fast-rising French club Montpellier, but the flip side of that is that Sky Sports and France Television - the main tournament broadcasters - are keen to televise their games live, albeit not as the main events on Saturday or Sunday.

The Warriors will open their campaign at home to Bath on Sunday, 13 November, and, after facing Leinster in Dublin the following Sunday, will be back at Firhill on the Sabbath for the third round match against top French side Montpellier, all games to be screened live in Sky Sports' opening Sunday slot of 12:45pm kick-off.

Their fourth game is away to Montpellier and has a Saturday 4:40pm kick-off to fit in with France Television.

Edinburgh, meanwhile, will open on a Saturday at London Irish's Madejski Stadium in Reading, live on Sky, and then revert to Friday evenings for the next three games, the match with Racing Metro 92 attracting no TV coverage and the back-to-back clashes with Cardiff being screened live only by Welsh language channel S4C. BBC Alba, who have a deal to show Scotland's pro teams in the new RaboDirect Pro12, cannot show any Heineken Cup games.

Glasgow chief executive Kenny Baillie stated: "Fridays are our preferred nights for rugby and have proven to be successful, but, at the same time, from a team performance point of view we played Wasps at this Sunday time last year and had a good victory. The opportunity is also there for a stronger visiting support, because supporters from Bath and Leinster don't have to take a day off their work as they would to get here for a Friday night game, and Bath and Leinster are two of the most well-supported teams away from home in the competition, so that's a definite positive.

"I'm hopeful that by the time we get to that our team will be playing well enough to attract a good crowd on a Sunday as well."

Baillie, who is leaving Glasgow but has agreed to stay on until September to help see the club through the busy summer and start to the season, confirmed that rugby does not operate like football in the sense that televised games bring a share of a financial pay-out to the clubs involved.

"We have a participation agreement and the SRU receive a straight fee for having two teams in the competition," he explained. "You have to accept that the ERC and broadcasters are looking to reward some of the bigger clubs and bigger grounds with the prime slots on TV, and we're not at that level yet, so rather than moaning about it it's up to us to get on and make the most of it.

"We enjoy Friday nights, particularly with a good atmosphere in the Jackie Husband Stand on the winter nights, and we'll get plenty of that through the league season, but hopefully we'll be playing at a level that makes lots of people come to the Heineken Cup games on Sundays believing that they will see another big win over top European opposition."

The tournament's kick-off is delayed until the weekend of 11/12/13 November due to the Rugby World Cup, but that is to ensure the World Cup players are back in club colours for the six rounds of pool matches in that month, December and January.

While Glasgow welcome Ian McGeechan's Bath side on Sunday, 13 November, and the following Sunday face the reigning Heineken Cup champions Leinster in Dublin, in what is arguably the toughest pool, Edinburgh head south to London Irish for a Saturday opener in what has been dubbed "The Group of Entertainment" by "Irish" coach Toby Booth.

Their first home match will be against Racing Metro 92 at Murrayfield on Friday, 18 November (8pm) in a pool featuring teams from four European capital cities. That will be preferable to their supporters.