Edinburgh winger Tim Visser believes that a victory over Gloucester in rugby's European Challenge Cup final at the Twickenham Stoop tonight would be an achievement to rank alongside the European successes of Scotland's football clubs in the past.
Edinburgh became the first Scottish side to reach a European rugby final when they hammered Newport Gwent Dragons 45-16 at their BT Murrayfield home two weeks ago. With his six-season career at Edinburgh due to end soon, Visser wants to go out on a high by matching what Celtic, Rangers and Aberdeen did in their European finals.
"I would say us winning would stand alongside those achievements," said the Dutch-born Visser, who has amassed 18 caps for Scotland since qualifying on residence grounds three years ago.
"For the sport, it is just as big as those moments. It is always easy to compare football to rugby, football being the majority sport in most countries. But yeah, for us, this is one of the pinnacles of anyone's career to get to a European final."
Edinburgh have hit a rich run of form lately, winning five of their last six games, and Visser said they had earned the right to enjoy their moment in the limelight.
"A lot of hard work has gone on behind the scenes," said the 27-year-old. "We deserve to be here. Some of our performances in the Challenge Cup have been outstanding.
"Winning away at Bordeaux, beating London Irish away [in the quarter-finals] in that last second - those are the performances that get you to a final. So, although maybe nobody would have predicted it, we've worked to get here."
After signing for Harlequins, the Stoop will be Visser's home ground next season, but he wants to go out on a high to thank Edinburgh for having faith in him. When he joined the capital side in 2009 he had dropped out of favour at Newcastle, but his try-scoring prowess quickly made him a hit with the Edinburgh fans.
"It would be nice to leave with a trophy," he said. "I don't think I'll be emotional because it's not my last game - I'll have a few more in the league - but it will be my last European game for Edinburgh and it's obvious that I'm eternally grateful for what they've done for me.
"I'm grateful for the belief they had in me when I came here, the opportunities they have given me. Getting the chance to play for Scotland, even though that wasn't my intention when I came here, that was amazing.
"I've got some fantastic memories. The calibre of players I've played with, going back to Chris Paterson, Nick de Luca, the Edinburgh legends of the past - to say I have played with them is brilliant. It'll be a tough last game for me when it comes.
"I want to win this final. Just getting there isn't enough for me. I want to win it. That will be good in terms of leaving a legacy, to leave some silverware. That's really important to me."
Visser admitted that Scotland captain and Gloucester scrum-half Greig Laidlaw was a particular threat on account of his inside knowledge of the Edinburgh team, but he added that Laidlaw's presence could also work in favour of the Edinburgh team.
"I'm very good friends with him and it will be good to face him," said the winger. "In a funny sense, I know a lot of his mannerisms so I know what to expect. I know the kind of things he does before he does certain things, especially in terms of his kicking game. There are actions that predict what he's going to do.
"He's a very good player and he reads the game extremely well but we know what to expect from him. It'll be important to keep an eye on him."
Thousands of Edinburgh fans are expected to converge on the south-west London ground tonight, and Visser said he wants to give them an evening to remember.
"We know that legendary status is up for grabs," he said. "It's very important we get our hands on this trophy. People don't talk about teams that make it to the semi-final or the final. They only talk about the team that wins it and we want to be that team."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article