Rugby League World Cup: Scotland v Italy preview
Both Scotland and Italy head into their Rugby League World Cup Group C clash in good form after opening wins.
Last Updated: 03/11/13 9:29am
The Bravehearts overcame a strong outfit in Tonga 26-24 last Tuesday night after a try by full-back Matty Russell - his second of the game - put ahead Scotland late before they defended stoutly to deny Tonga a further score.
Meanwhile, the Azzurri marked their arrival at the tournament in style with a comprehensive 32-16 win over Wales at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.
Now the teams go head-to-head to Workington's Derwent Park, where a large Cumbrian crowd are expected to turn out on Sunday.
Head coach Steve McCormack has no injuries to contend with and Catalan Dragons' hooker Ian Henderson believes that the Scot's victory over Tonga has inspired them for the rest of World Cup.
"It is pretty inspiring for us boys to put the effort in and come away with a win against Tonga," said Devon-born Henderson. "It was tough, really, really tough. We got off to a good start in the first half but they threw everything at us in the second half.
"I have never felt momentum change in a match as much as that in my life and it was so hard to contain. My shoulder is killing! They are big humans, they run hard and they are aggressive.
"It is great for us to get a win, we have got great belief in the squad and for us it is just really satisfying to get the win. I am not sure if it makes a difference who the opposition is, we are just happy to be competitive and to give ourselves a chance.
"Definitely the goal for us is to try and make the quarter finals firstly, and we have taken a step in the right direction. We have got a few things to work on, we didn't play well for long periods of time against Tonga but we are moving in the right direction, we are honest to each other and we just want to keep competing."
Italy head coach Carlo Napolitano says he wants to see more of the same from his side which started with a win against England in their warm-up match, before going on to beat Wales in Cardiff on the tournament's opening day.
"The plan is to continue the roll we are on hopefully but we have still got to improve on last weekend and we will be going over game plans towards this back-end of the week," he said.
SCOTLAND (19-man squad): Danny Addy, Danny Brough (capt), Brett Carter, Luke Douglas, Dale Ferguson, Ben Fisher, Ian Henderson, Ben Hellewell, Alex Hurst, Ben Kavanagh, Kane Linnett, Brett Phillips, Matt Russell, David Scott, Mitchell Stringer, Alex Szostak, Adam Walker, Peter Wallace, Oliver Wilkes.
ITALY (19-man squad): Christophe Calegari, Chris Centrone, Cameron Ciraldo, Ben Falcone, Ryan Ghietti, Aidan Guerra, Anthony Laffranchi, Joshua Mantellato, Tim Maccan, Anthony Minichiello, Mark Minichiello, Raymond Nasso, Dean Parata, Joel Riethmuller, Brendan Santi, Kade Snowden, James Tedesco, Ryan Tramonte, Paul Vaughan.