Edinburgh captain Mike Blair believes European rugby is beginning to take notice of Scottish clubs in the Heineken Cup.

The Scotland international feels that Magners League champions Edinburgh along with Glasgow Warriors have earned the respect of opposition teams with their performances in the competition over the last two years.

Blair said: "Scottish teams are getting a lot more respect from the opposition. They are respecting our development and the progress we are making and there are starting to sit up and take notice of what we are doing."

The scrum-half is also of the opinion that the progression of Scotland’s two professional clubs has benefited the national side.

"With only two professional teams in Scotland how we develop our Scottish players is of massive importance," he continued.

"We are in a unique position where we only have one player who isn’t qualified to play for Scotland.

"The confidence you get from Magners League performances and the European Cup will certainly help the international team.

"For the Scottish side to do well you need to get confidence from your two professional club sides."

Edinburgh kick off their campaign with a trip to play Stade Francais and will be boosted by their first victory in France last year against Castres.

Blair added: "We’ve got a young squad who are continually progressing and we picked up our first Heineken Cup win in France last year with a victory at Castres and in other games we’re becoming more and more competitive which wasn’t the case six or seven years ago.

"We’ve set no goals, we’ll take each game as it comes but Stade Francais first up is a tough opening fixture."

Coach Rob Moffat believes Edinburgh have every chance of getting through their pool but admits it won’t be easy.

He said: "We’ve definitely got more depth than we’ve ever had before. We’ve also got some X-factor players that can win games for us.

"But ultimately it’s about all 23 players in the squad going out on that field and having that belief and maybe there is a little bit more belief than there has been in the past.

"The group we are in is a really competitive group but there is nothing that scares us. People talk about the fear factor but we’re not afraid to go to Stade.

"We’re looking forward to it and we’ll go there believing we can win."

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