GIVEN the trouble they have caused in the past at BT Murrayfield, you'll be delighted to know that not even the early birds at next week's international against Italy are going to be catching any worms. What they will catch, instead, will be the official start of the new domestic club season with the second running of the Charity Shield game between the league and cup winners.

It's an intriguing decision to take it to the national ground as the curtain raiser to the Test that follows. When the players from Heriot's, the BT Premiership winners, and Boroughmuir, who captured the BT Cup at the same ground only a few months ago, take to the field they should expect a decent sized crowd to greet them.

Heriot's have the small advantage of being the holders, having beaten Melrose in the inaugural running of the Charity Shield - qualifying as Cup holders after the Borderers pipped everyone to the league title on a dramatic final afternoon - but Graham Wilson, who reckons that at 29 he is still some way short of being accurately described as a veteran despite 12 years of service at scrum-half to the Heriot's club, says a summer of change has made it impossible to predict.

"Pre-season has been good, so we are at the stage now where we are just looking forward to getting started," he said. "With the likes of Stevie Lawrie and Phil Smith as coaches there is no chance of us resting on our laurels from last season. It is always very difficult after you have won it to retain it, but that is what we are aiming to do."

Whoever wins on Saturday would be set up for an attack on a unique treble in Scottish rugby, with the league and cup to come over the course of the season, and Wilson sees no reason why his team, who were inches from reaching the Cup final as well, can't be the first to achieve it.

After all, last season they demonstrated just how effective they can be in tight games when they found a way to win the Premiership play-off final despite trailing to Melrose and being camped on their own line with less than two minutes to go.

"Over the past few years competition in the league has been getting better and better," he said. "You hear about how well some teams have done with recruitment on the back of how well they did last year, so I don't think there will be any easy games this year at all. It is important to get a good start, get into the top four and into the play-offs at the end of the season."

Ah yes - the play-offs. Last season was the first time the Scottish league has experimented with them, and in the end it all worked out fine. Heriot's, who had won the league by 10 points, did squeeze out that dramatic win on a memorable - and miraculously sunny, given the summer that followed - afternoon at Goldenacre but there was no shortage of people in the crowd grumbling about the injustice of finishing so far clear and maybe not being champions.

Wilson, though, admits that before the season started Heriot's had seen it as playing into their hands - they see themselves as good in one-off games but have often lacked consistency - so it would have been a touch hypocritical to complain the way things did work out.

Nor were there many grumbles from Melrose, who finished third but so nearly held on to their crown, nor even from Ayr, who they beat in the semi-final.

"The ambition has to be to get into the top four, then to secure a home semi," said Ross Curle, the Ayr playmaker. "Last season we achieved both of them but fell over at the final hurdle with a bit of a second-half collapse. That is still burning away in the memory and has kept the boys motivated."

This season, it is hard to see that top three from the last campaign not featuring in the season climax again, but who will join them is difficult to predict. Currie were the other side last season under the astute guidance of Ben Cairns. Gala are unlikely to have the same sort of late-season meltdown that hit them last time, Boroughmuir showed in their cup run what they can achieve.

All of them have been cheerfully recruiting, which will be the key to at least the early games where the Rugby World Cup will have a knock-on effect. With the Scotland players away, Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh will have to use their fringe players, meaning they won't be available to the clubs as often. Inevitably it will be the more successful sides that will be hit hardest with the likes Magnus Bradbury from Boroughmuir, Jamie Ritchie and Jason Hill from Heriot's, or Murdo McAndrew from Melrose leading the charge of the young brigade into the pro ranks.