Matty Russell’s two tries against Tonga gave Scotland a perfect start to their Rugby League World Cup and now the fullback wants to do it all again against Italy on Sunday.

Steve McCormack’s unheralded Bravehearts were 26-24 winners against Tonga with Russell’s late score the clincher after Scotland had thrown away a 16-point lead.

The win – which ranked as a large upset and was Scotland’s best ever according to their coach – means that a win against Italy in Workington on Sunday would put them on the brink of the quarter-finals.

Previously a fixture against Italy would have been seen as easy meat – Scotland beat a patched-up Azzuri 104-0 in Padova in 2009 – but this year’s vintage are anything but as back-to-back victories over England and Wales have shown.

“Italy will be a test for us again. They’ve done well, got good two wins, but looking at what we did against Tonga we can’t lose if we go out with same attitude,” said Russell, who will next season swap the Gold Coast for Warrington.

“Everyone played well on Tuesday, our forwards took us up the park, the back three all got yards out of dummy half, our halves Danny Brough and Peter Wallace took us to the right parts of the park with their kicking game.”

Despite McCormack having to explore the eligibility rules to put his squad together, a Scottish spirit has been harnessed and playing just over the border in Cumbria appears to have helped.

Based in Workington – the scene of Tuesday’s win and Sunday’s clash – they have integrated themselves with the locals and a sell-out crowd of over 9,000 is expected.

“The noise made it feel like I was playing in front of 20-odd thousand,” added Russell, who is one of the few Scotland-born players in the squad.

They will encounter an Italy side increasingly confident in their ability to make it to the last eight at least.

Their warm-up win over England proved to be no fluke as they crashed the Welsh opening-day party at the Millennium Stadium, and victory over another Home Nation would almost help them extend their tournament into the knockout rounds.

“We’ve come together well but we’re still getting better every day at training,” Italy fullback Anthony Minichiello said.

“We have got some combinations that will hopefully get better this week. There’s a bit of a buzz going around back in Italy about how we’ve started the World Cup and we want to keep that going.”