As the Scottish professional teams prepare to open their Magners League campaigns on Friday with the players talking up their chances of competing for the title, the Scottish Rugby Union (SRU) has unveiled a marketing initiative designed to get more of the thousands who pack Murrayfield for internationals along to see the same players in action for their club sides.

The union is including a free ticket to a home Magners League match with tickets for the autumn internationals against New Zealand, South Africa and Canada, hoping that those who take up the offer will be enthused to become regular supporters. They are gearing the drive towards the Boxing Day game at Murrayfield, the first of the matches between Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors over the Christmas and New Year period.

“Last season crowds for Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors showed healthy growth, corresponding with some tremendous displays against some of the best teams in Europe,” Gordon McKie, the SRU's chief executive, said. “We are keen to encourage supporters who watch the national team to increase their rugby diet. What better way to start than by seeing many of those same players in the colours of Edinburgh and Glasgow in a derby that is based on an intense rivalry stretching back some 136 years?” By then, the players believe, both sides should have firmly established their winning credentials, so that at stake in the derby fixtures would be vital points towards a high league finish as well as the bragging rights that go with wining the 1872 Cup, the trophy awarded to the winners over the two legs.

“Last season we hoped to do well within the camp but I don't think many other people expected that,” Ross Rennie, the Edinburgh flanker who was capped against Ireland last season, said. “Our two warm-up games [wins over London Wasps and Bath] will mean nothing if we don't win this opening weekend against Munster. It is great that expectations for this season are so high.

“Last season teams probably did not expect us to be the threat that we were, but now they are going to have to look at us more closely when they play us. It puts more pressure on us, which is good for our development.”

Both Edinburgh and Glasgow are aiming to build on their highest finishes in the Magners League - Edinburgh were fourth last season, level on points with Munster but behind them on wins, and Glasgow were one place behind their Scottish rivals. Fergus Thomson, Glasgow's Scotland hooker, sees no reason why they cannot improve. “The pressure is good for us,” he said. “It is not acceptable to come second-best and the expectation should spur us on to better things.”