This weekend Emma McDonald and Maddie Arlett must seek to work as one in bidding to earn the right to row against the world but next weekend they will be doing their utmost to inspire seven colleagues to help ensure that the other experiences the misery of boat race defeat.

It promises to be a curious few days for these young Scots who are being tipped for great things after forcing their way into the official GB rowing programme with their performances at this season's trials.

The Huegel Regatta, which is taking place in Essen this weekend, will see both earn their first GB under-23 caps, sculling together in what is as much a speed trial as a competition in itself.

"It's to see where we place against other nations and whether we're fast enough to be competitive at the World Under-23 Championships," explained McDonald, the more experienced rower of the two.

Now studying primary school teaching at Glasgow University she took up the sport as a 12-year-old when she was a pupil at Johnstone High, growing up close to Lochwinnoch where the Castle Semple Rowing Club is based.

However Arlett's introduction to the sport offers evidence the nature of rowing allowing for those with the natural attributes being able to pick it up quickly but also, on the down-side, the strides the sport has to make in terms of giving youngsters the opportunity to become involved.

"I started rowing at University and this is my first year of GB trialling," explained the former Selkirk High School.

With no background in rowing to that point it was only her choice of course at Edinburgh University that saw it become an option.

"I do sports science. This helps me a lot. I just wanted to find something that would push me to my absolute limit. This is perfect," she explained.

Both in third year at University their emergence together has been ideal since it is clear that as well as being able to work regularly together in Scotland when the GB programme is, inevitably, entirely England-based, a healthy rivalry sees them driving one another one individually.

At the British trials both finished second and third in races, resulting in them being among the fastest four who were selected for this trip to Germany.

"This is the first time there have been Scottish people selected so they decided to put us in a double and then the other two from England in a double," McDonald explained.

As to the personal head-to-head?

"Since coming into the summer season at the final trials I beat Maddie in the time trial semi-final then she beat me in the final and the only time we've raced since then was at the British Universities Championships and I won there, so it's Maddie's turn," McDonald said, with a giggle, Arlett's tone slightly more serious as she offered her agreement.

Which takes us to next week and the matter of next week's Scottish boat race, less well known than its English counterpart, but boasting similarly ancient origins having first been staged in 1877 and now establishing itself sufficiently to attract sponsorship this year from Glasgow legal firm Watermans.

McDonald was also in the winning boat when they met a year ago, having been in the losing one the previous year.

Last year's race was meanwhile Arlett's first experience of the event which takes place on the Clyde and things did not go well for those from the capital.

"We had a steering difficulty pretty much off the start. It wasn't a very competitive race, but this year will be a different story," she asserted.

If that sounds like excuse-making that works both ways going by McDonald's reasoning for the chorus of "Edinburgh" that met with the query as to who are favourites this time around.

"Glasgow have not focused on eights or really had an eight all season so we're hoping we can bring smaller boats together and see if we can pull something out of the bag," she claimed.

Mind games? They are by no means unheard of on the water apparently, but equipment failure apart, this is among the purest of sports in terms of output being rewarded by results.

"It's not like in a rugby match where you're in direct contact with someone," McDonald noted. "You're in different boats and all your focus is on making sure that you race as well as you can race and hope that it's good enough.

"When you win in our sport it's because you know you've performed the best. It's not like a fluke."

They will, next Saturday, be at the front of their respective boats, McDonald in the pace-setting stroke seat for Glasgow while Arlett, who rows on the bow side will - at a very different angle from today, in every sense - be watching her back, sitting just behind the Edinburgh stroke as an afternoon of racing gets underway at 1pm in the Clyde Harbour area, culminating in the men's then women's eights at 2.45pm and 3pm.