Edinburgh and Glasgow have the chance today to see a season that has had more than its fair share of ups and downs finish with a smile as both sides aim for record high finishes in the Magners League. It may have been a disappointing international season for Scotland but since those players went back to their clubs, each side has lost just once.

The result of this double winning run is that both clubs have it in their own hands whether they can improve on their previous highest finishes - fifth for Edinburgh two years ago, and seventh for Glasgow the season before. To make the position even more interesting, they are also dependent on each other’s results. Glasgow could give Edinburgh a chance of grabbing third place if they could win away to Munster, while Edinburgh could help Glasgow to stay in fifth by beating Llanelli Scarlets, who lie sixth.

The men from the west have the harder task, heading to Cork as the Irish province warm up for their Heineken Cup final later in the month. Not just that, but it is set to be an emotional farewell in their last home game of the season to Declan Kidney, the coach who is moving to take charge of the national side, and Anthony Foley, the veteran No 8 who is retiring at the end of the campaign.

Munster are not at full strength, however, and Glasgow are missing only Alastair Kellock, the captain, from their strongest lineup. The only change to the side that won in Belfast last week is on rotation, with Andy Henderson coming in at centre for Graeme Morrison, keeping both in the frame to fill the position for Scotland in next month’s tour.

It will complete the set of games for two players, Bernardo Stortoni, who has played in every competitive game, and Moray Low who has played in every Magners League game, a remarkable feat for a young prop but good enough to earn him a Scoland squad place.

“I have just been happy to have stayed injury free,” Low said. “I enjoy it here. I like Glasgow as a city and have settled in fine. I always knew that with the talent we’ve got we were going to compete. It takes some time for players to come through, but now it’s starting to show. I’m looking forward to next year after a full season of professional rugby under my belt. Guys now want to stay and others are coming back because they can see that we are actually competing.

“The support has contributed to that too. The crowds have got bigger this year and they’ve supported us away too. You know them and go up and speak to them afterwards, which is great. We just want to see more and more, especially at home games.”

The trouble with trying to assess the task facing Edinburgh is in working out what to make of Llanelli after they sacked Phil Davies, their coach, last week and then saw all their Wales players take the week off to join the international training camp Warren Gatland had arranged in Ireland.

Edinburgh have kept tinkering to a minimum, restoring Hugo Southwell to the starting XV that won in Swansea last week, with Andrew Maxwell dropping out to make way for him. There are changes on the bench that should further strengthen the side, with Allan Jacobsen, Craig Hamilton and Mark Robertson all returning from injury and, in the case of the first two, aiming to show the international selectors that they are ready for the national side’s trip to Argentina.

Edinburgh need to get something out of the game to keep ahead of the Scarlets, who are four points behind but thanks to a better score difference would overtake them if they won and Edinburgh failed to grab a losing bonus point. An Edinburgh win would also mean the Scarlets had no chance of catching Glasgow, keeping both clubs in the top half of the final league table.

This week, Gordon McKie, the Scottish Rugby chief executive, reckoned that the Six Nations had been a blip on an otherwise positive picture for the game in Scotland. Today, the players can prove him right.