GLASGOW’s two displays in the Champions Cup against Racing 92 may have been spectacular, but their league form preceding those wins was anything but. True, the Warriors were understrength in their last three PRO12 matches, but the fact is they lost all of them and are now down in sixth in the table.

In that context, today’s 1872 Cup match against Edinburgh cannot merely be seen as a contest in its own right, for all that the players enjoy the rivalry. It is, first and foremost, a chance for Glasgow to get back to winning ways and start closing in on those play-off places.

“We know we’ve got to make up some ground in the league,” Gregor Townsend said. “It’s been great the last two weeks in the Champions Cup, but the three weeks before that we lost games, so this is our next fixture in the PRO12, we have Treviso and Cardiff after, so three important games for us to hopefully get back in the top four. It’s about doing all we can to get that win and then building on what we’ve done in the last two weeks.”

Coaches can often feel more pressure in the build-up to derby matches, but according to Townsend he tends to feel less before games against Edinburgh, for the simple reason that his squad needs little encouragement to prepare enthusiastically. After all, the fixture may be worth the same number of league points as any other PRO12 encounter, but in many cases the players are up against opposite numbers who are their keenest rivals for a place in the Scotland team. Sportsmen may pay lip service to taking each game as it comes, but they would hardly be human if they did not think a little bit about the Six Nations Championship, which is now just six weeks away.

“It’s easier for a coach, because players are highly motivated and they know the opposition really well, better than I do,” Townsend explained. “They’ve trained with them with Scotland. They are the ones that go out to play, they are the ones who have played in the last couple of seasons when we didn’t win. We’re in the background as coaches.

“What we have to make sure is that we play a smart game, as well as one that also has that emotion and aggression that you have every time you play rugby. We’ve not done that as well as we would have wanted in our last couple of seasons against them.”

If Glasgow are to get the better of Edinburgh after three defeats on the bounce in the fixture, much will depend on Finn Russell. The playmaker has had rave reviews in his last two games, but he can still get a lot better according to Townsend.

“He loves a challenge, he loves big games. There’s a lot more to come from Finn and a lot more to come out of his game.

“He can play better - a lot better. I thought he played better in the away game [against Racing]. He’s full of confidence, his running game is coming through, he’s taking defences on with ball in hand and some of his kicking has been excellent.

“He’s the first to admit that there are two or three things that he’d like to have back again. That happens a lot at 10 as you have so many decisions to make. It helps you making decisions through experience.”

With a player like Russell who can be inconsistent as well as inspired, some coaches might be tempted to try to lay down the law and give them a detailed game plan to follow. But Townsend is confident in his stand-off and in his other players, and thinks the key to helping them improve is to get them to think about how they have played rather than simply telling them what they should have done.

“You learn from your action. When you’re dealing with a player like Finn, he knows; you’re not telling him something new. You ask him the question what could you have done differently, what was the speed of ball, where were the defence? He’ll probably say ‘I knew straight away that I should have done x rather than y’.

“Like any of our players, we want to express themselves, play to their strengths, be confident in their own ability. He’s obviously very confident just now, going to bottle that and keep that for the rest of his career.”

Russell’s duel with ex-Warriors team-mate Duncan Weir should be one of the highlights of this afternoon’s match, and Weir and the rest of the Edinburgh are certain to try and stop him getting into his stride. But Townsend warned that that is easier said than done, because of you try to shut down one side of Russell’s game, he has the skill to turn to a different tactic instead.

“He’s got an all-round game. He’s got a passing ability, a very good kicking ability that we’ve seen in recent weeks, and a running ability. So if you think about putting his kicking under pressure, he might step you or he might pass.

“If you think he’s going to pass a lot and drift off him, he might run. He’s shown in the last few weeks, specially with his running game, that he can make breaks and not just the guys outside him.”