The encouraging start to the year for Scottish rugby has been given another boost with confirmation that the number of people involved in the sport continues to grow, returning to around the peak level of the late 1990s.

After record attendance figures at both the professional derby fixtures over the festive break, it is a further sign that the sport is starting to overcome the legacy of a decade of internal warfare.

The latest figures issued by the Scottish Rugby Union show that the number of adults playing the game has risen from 9,600 in the same survey last year to 10,500. At the same time, the number of young players has risen from 18,100 to 20,000. Since the development structure was changed in 2006, the number of junior and adult players has risen by 6,300, 21 per cent.

In all, more than 30,000 juniors and adults are now playing. In the golden period that produced a Grand Slam in 1990 and the Five Nations Championship in 1999, there were 35,000, but by 2004 that had slumped to 24,000. The SRU’s strategic plan aims to build the total to 38,000 by 2012.

The union would be encouraged by these figures in isolation but, in fact, they form part of a bigger picture that has seen interest in the rugby grow at all levels, with the notable exception of dreadful attendance figures for the two glamour international fixtures in November, in particular the match against South Africa, for which Murrayfield was only half full.

Set against that, Edinburgh set their Heineken Cup attendance record in December, when 7,711 saw them play Wasps, and beat that when 12,534 turned up for the first of the two derby matches against Glasgow — more than went to the two games combined last season. Any idea that that this was only a flash in the pan was overcome when Glasgow attracted 6,665 for the return fixture, even though they had been hammered in the first game.

The next test for both clubs comes this week with Matt Williams, the former Scotland coach, taking his revived Ulster side to Murrayfield, his first trip back to the home of Scottish rugby since being sacked in 2005. He remains a bogey figure as far as many Scottish fans are concerned, so it will be interesting to see what sort of reception he gets.

That also means he has plenty of motivation to make sure his team come away with victory and after their demolition of Munster at Thomond Park last weekend, they will travel on a high. To add even further spice to the fixture, he has included Rob Dewey, the former Edinburgh centre who has been out of the Ulster side recently, to the squad and may well fancy giving the player a chance to prove himself against his old club.

Nor is Dewey the only former clubman returning to his old stamping ground, with Andy Hall, who used to play for Glasgow, being lined up for a place in the Dragons team travelling to Firhill. Glasgow’s players know that they must back up their showing in the last match with an equally combative approach to tackling the Dragons, who have won on their past four visits to Glasgow.

Both are games that have all the elements to attract strong crowds, and should continue the healthy growth in routine attendances at the top level, which has seen the average attendance at Glasgow go from 2,386 for the whole of last season to 3,540 during this campaign. At Edinburgh, the figures are even more impressive, up from 2,012 at this time last year to 6,064. These match the latest statistics from the union, which show the sport growing at every level from senior clubs to schools across the country, with 244 of the 381 secondary schools in Scotland now entering a team into the Bell Lawrie Scottish Schools Cup.

Nick Rennie, responsible for the programme, was clearly delighted with the latest returns. “Providing quality, fun opportunities for Scotland’s young people to play rugby is vital for the future of the game,” he said. “I am delighted with the amount of hard work that has been carried out by countless school and club volunteers, to put us ahead of schedule to meet our strategic target of 38,000 people playing rugby by 2012.”