It may be the match that determines year-end bragging rights and could decide a few of the closely contested places in the international team, but according to Andy Robinson, the Edinburgh coach, the key to tonight’s Magners League derby against Glasgow is for the players not to get too worked up about it.

With the next Scotland training camp only a fortnight away and selection for the early RBS Six Nations Championship games probably following immediately after, this is a perfect chance for players with ambition to make a point, often in direct head-to-heads with their immediate competition. Every unit has players looking to make a case to Frank Hadden, the national coach.

“It is very difficult to predict derby games,” Robinson said. “You can have all these plans about what you want to do but it is about the execution of those plans, the weather on the day and the guy in the middle who has got to control it.

“People are pretty aggressive in these games but there is a fine line between being aggressive and overstepping the mark. I’ve said to the players we can’t be too fired up for this game or they might overstep the mark, you need an optimum level of adrenaline.” After all, as he pointed out somebody like Nick De Luca, the centre, has come up against Yannick Jauzion and Brian O’Driscoll twice in the past six weeks, games that should be far more important to determining his international future than the Scottish inter-city derby, especially since Andrew Henderson, his Glasgow rival, has a knee injury and misses the game.

The big battle for talent spotters is the back row where every one of the six starters is in the running for the two places alongside Jason White in the Scotland team. In particular it is a chance for John Barclay and Ross Rennie, the two young specialist opensides, to show which of them will take over a role that has not been filled since Donnie Macfadyen got injured two years ago.

Johnnie Beattie, Barclay’s No 8 colleague at Glasgow, has been getting the man-of-the-match awards but it is the 21-year-old openside who has been putting in the consistent performances since getting back from the World Cup and his debut cap. Against that, Rennie has also been in outstanding form and but for a truly masterful performance from Mike Blair, the scrum half, would surely have joined Beattie in the awards stakes.

Edinburgh believe that in Blair in his present form, they could have the trump card. He may have been a bit undercooked during the World Cup, when he was making his comeback from a five-month shoulder injury, but the club have reaped the reward of his enforced rest. Robinson confessed that Blair has been playing so well that plans to reduce the pressure by giving him the odd game from the bench have had to be put on hold.

The other significant head to heads tonight at Murrayfield include Moray Low, the youngster looking for a breakthrough at tighthead prop, up against the gnarled experience of Allan Jacobsen; Fergus Thomson, the hooker who won his debut caps during the World Cup campaign, against Ross Ford, the first choice in the national side at the moment; Allister Hogg and Kelly Brown, in direct opposition at blind-side flanker; Beattie who started last season as Scotland No 8, against David Callam who took the job when Beattie was injured and ousted him from the World Cup squad. There are rather fewer behind the scrum although Hadden will get a chance to weigh up the contrast in styles that Phil Godman and Dan Parks bring at fly half, while De Luca must feel that another impressive performance and his claims to one of Scotland centre berths cannot be ignored.

“It’s just another game, that is how we will look at it,” said Robinson. “They are another well coached team who have developed well this year. Everything that we talk about is about ourselves, we have to concentrate on what we want. It is great that Glasgow are doing what they are doing, but games are won and lost by focusing on yourselves and that is what we have been doing.”

Edinburgh: B Cairns; A Turnbull, N De Luca, J Houston, S Webster; P Godman, M Blair; A Jacobsen, R Ford, G Kerr, M Mustchin, B Gissing, A Hogg (captain), R Rennie, D Callam. Replacements: A Kelly, A Allori, C Hamilton, R Reid, B Meyer, D Blair, H Southwell.

Glasgow: B Stortoni; L Fa’atau, G Morrison, D Gibson, H O’Hare; D Parks, C O’Young; J Va’a, F Thomson, M Low, A Newman, A Kellock (captain), K Brown, J Barclay, J Beattie. Replacements: E Milligan, E Kalman, D Turner, J Eddie, S Pinder, S Barrow, T Evans.

Referee: A Small.

Television: Live on Setanta Sports 1, at 7.20pm (kick-off 7.30pm).