Can Edinburgh or Glasgow challenge for URC title?

Given they scraped into the play-offs last season by the skin of their teeth and have habitually failed to mount even a semblance of a meaningful title challenge, there will not be many placing handsome wagers on Edinburgh being crowned champions.

And yet there is no shortage of confidence within the camp that this group can do something special.

“We want to win the league,” said prop Paul Hill. “We talked about it, it happens because people believe in it day in, day out.

“Having silverware in the cabinet, I think that’s the only goal. I believe in it. I think that’s all there is.”

That target might raise a few eyebrows, but head coach Sean Everitt agrees that his team must begin to see themselves as contenders before they will be recognised as such.

“I think we’ve got to start talking a different language,” Everitt told the BBC’s Scotland Rugby Podcast.

“We don’t just want to compete, we’re playing a competition to win. We’re in professional sport.

“But I think the start is really important for us.”

That was where Edinburgh fell down last season, their slow start necessitating a strong finish just to reach the top eight.

An opening day assignment away to Zebre – the perennial URC strugglers whom Edinburgh failed to beat home or away last season – will provide an early marker as to how serious the capital side are about being big players.

A lot of experience went out of the door over the summer in the shape of Jamie Ritchie, Ali Price, Dave Cherry, Emialiano Boffelli and others, and the injury list before the first whistle is already brutal.

However, there is excitement about what youngsters such as back-rows Freddy Douglas and Liam McConnell, as well scrum-half Conor McAlpine, can offer when given a chance.

If big players like Darcy Graham and Duhan van der Merwe can stay fit and firing then perhaps they can surprise a few people, but as always with Edinburgh, we will believe it when we see it.