© Edinburgh Rugby

Enlarge

Related Links

News: Double injury blow for Edinburgh

News: Paterson eyes Rugby World Cup 2011

Match Pack: Edinburgh crush Glasgow

Tournaments/Tours: Celtic League | Celtic League

Teams: Edinburgh | Scotland

Edinburgh are hoping to capitalise on their record home crowd that witnessed their Boxing Day demolition of Scottish rivals Glasgow Warriors.

The capital club recorded a comprehensive 39-6 Magners League victory in front of 12,534 fans at Murrayfield Stadium in a match that was also the opening leg of the David Lloyd 1872 Cup. The figure smashed the combined crowd total from last season's two meetings between the sides (10,596) thanks largely to a Scottish Rugby promotion that enabled Scotland supporters to claim a ticket to the game if they had attended the Test matches against New Zealand, South Africa or Canada.

Chief executive Nic Cartwright now hopes to persuade the newcomers to become fully-fledged followers of professional rugby in Scotland. Cartwright said, "In successive home matches, Edinburgh have set new attendance records in both the Heineken Cup (7, 711) and the Magners League which is really encouraging.

"Friday's match proved to be an entertaining spectacle with four tries and a memorable atmosphere generated by both sets of supporters. Hopefully the neutrals who were potentially attending their first-ever Magners League match bought into what professional rugby is all about in this country.

"Now we will be engaging with them again even further to ensure they become regulars either at Edinburgh or Glasgow Warriors in the future."

After six homes matches this season, Edinburgh's average home crowd is 6, 064; which is approximately 4,000 more than what it was at the same stage last season (2, 120) and they are hoping for another bumper crowd for their next home match against Ulster in the Magners League on Friday, January 9.

Glasgow are hoping to attract their own record crowd for the return clash at Firhill Arena on Friday night - their current best-ever attendance is 5, 213.