World Cup Preview: Scotland v Italy
Winners in week one Scotland and Italy go head-to-head at Derwent Park on Sunday.
It promises to be a lot closer than the last time the two nations met, when Steve McCormack’s men racked up a 104-0 victory in Padova back in 2009.
There are no Italian survivors from that day, but five of the Scotland team lined-up in this World Cup against Tonga last Tuesday.
Scotland will once again look to draw upon the passionate support of the Workington crowd, having attracted the biggest attendance to Derwent Park since 1994 in Tuesday night’s win.
Italy played their part on the tournament’s opening day, impressively beating hosts Wales 32-16 at the Millennium Stadium, following up from their shock win over England the previous week.
Prop Anthony Laffranchi said: “We are improving every week and the community within the players is improving.
“We are getting to know each other a bit more and obviously playing together on a weekly basis helps.
“Scotland have done well to hold Tonga out and to Scotland’s credit they fought hard and managed to get the win at the end of the day.
“We are in tough pool. Obviously we have got Scotland this week and then Tonga so it is going to be exciting times for the next couple of weeks.”
The winner of this game is likely to be in pole position for a place in the quarter-finals, where the likely opponent would be New Zealand.
Scotland squad:: Danny Addy (Bradford), Danny Brough (Huddersfield), Brett Carter (Workington), Luke Douglas (Gold Coast), Dale Ferguson (Huddersfield), Ben Fisher (London), Ian Henderson (Catalan), Ben Hellewell (Featherstone), Alex Hurst (London), Ben Kavanagh (Widnes), Kane Linnett (North Queensland), Brett Phillips (Workington), Matt Russell (Gold Coast), David Scott (Featherstone), Mitchell Stringer (Sheffield), Alex Szostak (Sheffield), Adam Walker (Hull KR), Peter Wallace (Brisbane), Oliver Wilkes (Wakefield)
Italy squad: Christophe Calegari (Lezignan), Chris Centrone (North Sydney), Cameron Ciraldo (Penrith), Ben Falcone (Souths Logan), Ryan Ghietti (Northern Pride), Aidan Guerra (Sydney), Anthony Laffranchi (St Helens), Joshua Mantellato (Newcastle), Tim Maccan (Tweed Heads), Anthony Minichiello (Sydney), Mark Minichiello (Gold Coast), Raymond Nasso (Avignon), Dean Parata (Parramatta), Joel Riethmuller (North Queensland), Brendan Santi (Wests), Kade Snowden (Newcastle), James Tedesco (Wests), Ryan Tramonte (Windsor), Paul Vaughan (Canberra)