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"We play Bath on a Sunday afternoon - Friday night at Firhill would have been quite nice - so we have to make sure we have our game just right," said head coach Sean Lineen.
"Any team coached by Ian McGeechan is going to be a very good team as he is a meticulous planner, a very good motivator and incredibly good rugby coach.
"Geech has been around for quite some time - I played under him many, many years ago - and he is a wily old character who has been around and done everything in the game.
"When you look at all the star players they have down there you have to have a little bit of fear, and there is nothing wrong with a little bit of fear, but we played Bath a few years ago in the Heineken Cup and we had two cracking games.
"There is certainly healthy respect there, and, while in this tournament in particular you have to front up up front or you are in real trouble, it is important we also concentrate on our own game.
"We also have defending champions Leinster in our group and when we go to Dublin in Round 2 we know they will come out with all guns blazing - they have world class players, play fantastic rugby, are used to winning things and will have 18,000 screaming fans behind them."
Edinburgh reached the knock-out stages eight years ago and Lineen insists that one-off must be turned into a regular achievement.
"We had three wins in the Heineken Cup last year and it is how we get greater consistency that is important," said Lineen. "We always manage to have one or two great and favourable results and then we fade away so we have to work out how to get that consistency and build up momentum.
"Scottish teams really have not done anything in the Heineken Cup and it is massively important that the two Scottish teams do well in the tournament this season.
"We have had a couple of good away wins this season, against Leinster and Cardiff in the domestic league, but it is one thing doing it in the league and another thing doing it in the Heineken Cup against Europe's best.
"This is the big stage and we all have our players back from the World Cup. It is how they integrate back into the team and we have to go out there give it our best shot on Sunday as everyone knows you need to win your home games, that is really important.
"What is also important in the longer term is that we now have the succession planning in place because we lost eight or nine players in the last few years and first stage is to keep those X factor players and get a settled team - then you can start challenging for things.
"The Lamont brothers, Max Evans, Kelly Brown and Dan Parks are among those who have moved on and if we are going to be ambitious, do well and win things, then we must keep our best players.
"We don't want to just make up the numbers - we want to be competitive and win matches - and a Scottish team reaching the knock-out stages of the Heineken Cup would be massive boost for Scottish rugby all round. There is no bigger stage to perform on and Sunday's match is a hugely important one for us."
