Perhaps Al Dickinson was guilty of a degree of overstatement when he drew a wry comparison with the clash of Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, but there is little doubt that Friday evening's mano-a-mano between Sam Hidalgo-Clyne and Greig Laidlaw at the Twickenham Stoop is shaping up as the defining contest of the Scottish rugby year.

The first and most pressing issue at stake is the destination of the European Challenge Cup trophy. Beyond that, however, is the question of which of the two scrum-halves will be seen as the better starting option for Scotland's World Cup campaign later this year.

In the cherry and white Gloucester corner we have Laidlaw: 29 years old, capped 39 times and currently in possession of the Scotland starting jersey as well as the Scotland captaincy. And in the more muted red, white and black of Edinburgh, we find Hidalgo-Clyne: 21, capped five times as a replacement and, arguably, the most exciting talent to emerge in these parts for a decade.

Everyone is talking about Hidalgo-Clyne. TV commentators have purred over his performances in Edinburgh's dash to the Challenge Cup final, while he did enough in his cameo appearances in the Six Nations to prove that he has the temperament as well as the skills to thrive in the Test arena. The fact that he can also kick goals, and usually with a pretty impressive success rate, makes it all the easier to see him as Laidlaw's direct successor.

But in the buzz that has surrounded his emergence over the past few months, the one man who does not want to add to the hype is Hidalgo-Clyne himself. He is not exactly a shrinking violet, and an articulate manner can be counted among his many other attributes, but he would still much rather make his statements on the pitch.

I'm one of those people who doesn't really like talking about himself," Hidalgo-Clyne explained. "I try to stay away from all that stuff as much as I can. It's nice to get praise, but I want to go places and I want to just keep working hard. One good season doesn't make a player and I have a lot to learn."

Indeed he has. Even as the accolades have piled up - he won three Man of the Match awards on the trot for Edinburgh recently - some flaws have been apparent. He has maybe been a little too urgent at times. On occasions, he has maybe taken too much upon himself. But the good news for Edinburgh and Scotland is that he is sufficiently self-aware and self-critical to recognise and address the areas where he has work to do.

The most heartening aspect is that he takes things on board and just keeps getting better and better. At the start of the season he was just one of a crop of scrum-half contenders on Edinburgh's books; in the final weeks of the campaign he is being talked about as the most improved player in the country and one of the most exciting talents Scotland has seen in years.

If the baton does pass to Hidalgo-CLyne ahead of the World Cup then Laidlaw might rue his own generosity. At Edinburgh, the club he left at the end of last season, Laidlaw was effectively Hidlago-Clyne's mentor, and he carried on in the same vein after the younger man was first brought into the Scotland squad earlier this year. But if Laidlaw does turn out to have been the architect of his own downfall then at least he can console himself with the knowledge that Hidalgo-Clyne is grateful for all the help he has been given.

"Learning from Greig, especially in the Six Nations, has helped me hugely," said Hidalgo-Clyne. "I'm taking that into my game now.

"His game knowledge is huge. For example, he knows exactly when a winger is in and he can put it over the corner. His game management is brilliant. I want to adapt that into my game, learn how to control a game like he can.

"At the start of the season, I was a bit of erratic. I had a lot of pace, but there was no control. Now I want to bring in his side to it, so I can slow things down, control things, manage people and make my forwards feel relaxed around me."

They should have few worries on that score. Time was when Edinburgh would be on the wrong side of the scales in a catchweight contest against just about any English side, but the balance has tilted their way in recent times. The Edinburgh pack dozed off badly in their heavy loss to Munster a few weeks ago, but it was a wake-up call to a side that has become far more accustomed to bullying opponents this season.

Not that Hidlago-Clyne will be taking that for granted on Friday. "We know exactly what we want to do," he said. "We want to keep it tight and structured, and play off as much set-piece as we can. The biggest thing for me is doing that, making sure it doesn't get loose and that we don't make silly kicks because we know how good Gloucester are at counter-attack.

"The forwards will give us a platform. It's easy when you're going forward. But I'm sure Gloucester will have a tougher pack than anything we've faced in the last couple of weeks, so our forwards will really need to front up.

"That Munster game was where our forwards didn't do so well, where their forwards mauled against us pretty easily. That gave us a kick up the backside and that got our boys firing again over the past couple of weeks."

Edinburgh might have been riding their luck in the quarter-final win against London Irish, but they thrashed Newport Gwent Dragons off the park in the subsequent semi-final. Gloucester will not roll over so easily, but the capital club have history in their sights and Hidalgo-Clyne is clear they should seize the day.

"It's brilliant, being the first Scottish team to reach a European final," he said. "But we don't want to be the ones who get there only to fall short. We're going in the right direction and now we want to go the whole way."