Today’s Pro14 Grand Final has the potential to be crucial in Glasgow Warriors bid to prove to themselves that they are capable of competing at European level, but their head coach knows that will only be the case if they can get the right result.

They have, of course, won the domestic title before but this challenge of a different order to that day in 2015 against a Munster side that was on the wane at a traditional rugby venue, Belfast’s Ravenhill.

Largely led by Leinster, the outstanding Celtic team of the past decade this domestic competition has grown in stature in the interim and so, should Glasgow prove capable of beating the defending champions on what promises to be a grand, old occasion at Celtic Park, which might justifiably be pronounced either way today, this can be significant.

“Maybe a few years down the track you look back at situations, but what it would mean is that we’ve played bloody well, clearly,” was Rennie’s typically down-to-earth assessment of what is at stake. We’ve put a massive emphasis on trying to build depth within our squad and to get to these stages with the amount international boys we have. It’s a massive day for the whole squad, backroom squad and so on. Just a hell of a lot of work from a hell of a lot of people. That makes it special and we can’t wait for the whistle.”

This was the first season in which Glasgow have managed to compete on two fronts, reaching both the knockout stages in Europe and these Pro14 play-offs at a time when standards have risen across the domestic competition.Saracens may have won the Champions Cup, beating three Celtic teams, Glasgow, Munster and Leinster, in the knockout rounds, but they were the lone English representatives, while the Pro14 produced five of the last eight and two semi-finalists, having had three teams in last year’s semi-finals.

Reaching a Pro14 final consequently now carries more credibility than ever, reflecting the way Glasgow have responded to the challenge.

“We’ve got better depth now, having brought in some really good personnel who have made a big difference, but every side in the competition is better now,” said Rennie.

“Leinster compared to what they were three or four years ago are much stronger. The competition gets tougher every year, but it’s been over a long time here, Sean Lineen’s time before Gregor (Townsend) they were making play-offs at the end of his tenure.

“Maybe we’ve raised expectations over that period of time. We’ve played a pretty positive brand of footie, too, so if we play against the weaker sides, we can tend to put them away, whereas maybe sides who are a bit conservative might end up in an arm wrestle and lose a couple of those. I’m sure there are a hundred things, but mindset is a big part of it.”

If there was a hint of a dig in those remarks at the more prosaic approach taken to improve competitiveness by his Edinburgh counterpart Richard Cockerill that, in turn, could be seen as being down to the way in which a succession of derby defeats got under Rennie’s skin as the soft under-belly that had long made Glasgow vulnerable, was exposed.

The way Edinburgh were swept aside in the last of this season’s derbies was telling in that regard, then, as was last week’s semi-final whipping of Ulster, not to mention the way Glasgow went toe-to-toe with Leinster in winning this season’s only previous meeting in Dublin last month, so ending an eight year wait for a win in Dublin.

“It’s something we’ve been striving for all year. We’ve talked about not wanting to be an east-west side,” said Rennie, referring to their past determination to play with style without earning the right to do so.

“So you’ve got a decent enough pack for a start, good at line-out and scrum.Our maul is as good as anyone in the competition.

“We’ve probably scored more tries than most in the past ten weeks. We try to have an edge about us, be prepared to go through the middle of teams and shake their defence.That means that, when we do go to space, we haven’t got a wall in front of us.

“It’s taken us a while to maybe get to grips with that game. We did it in patches last year but have done it much better this year. Probably what helps, too, is we have just about a full-strength side on the park. That’s massive for us and, looking at Leinster, they’re pretty similar.”

Which is precisely why today can tell us so much about Glasgow’s longer term prospects.