After his first day overseeing his team's Rugby League World Cup preparations on Sunday, it was back to the day job:

looking after the Warrington club's education programme for its academy players.

That is the reality that confronts Steve McCormack, head coach of Scotland. His squad may boast this season's most valued individual player in Super League in captain Danny Brough, but McCormack's schedule this week looks more like that of an amateur club coach.

Only some of his squad - 19 in all - were available for Sunday's get-together at the marvellously named Big Fellas Stadium in Featherstone, but he expects to have them all together on Thursday, with their overseas contingent from Catalan Dragons and Australia's vaunted National Rugby League (NRL), having arrived by then. There will be all of two days to get ready for their solitary warm-up match against Papua New Guinea at Featherstone on Saturday.

Is it enough? McCormack thinks so, but then he is used to it in this, his 10th season as Scotland coach. It has been a period that has included just 17 matches, seven of which have been won, a record bearing favourable comparison with that of the the four men who have held the same post in this country's more established rugby code.

"Resource wise I think we've batted above our average when you look at what other nations have available to them," he reckons.

"Like a lot of the other teams we haven't got along with our players but that is something we are very used to since we normally only get them for a few weeks in October/November to play internationals. The key to dealing with that is identifying good people who are good players."

McCormack is, of course, a Northerner, hailing from Wigan - the town which is synonymous with the sport - and born into it as the son of a professional player.

When it comes to selecting - and for that matter coaching - the Scotland squad, the rules of engagement and sentiments generated would be enough to baffle more sophisticated souls than Jack Wilshere and Kevin Pietersen.

"I've not got any Scottish heritage but when the opportunity to coach Scotland was offered to me by the national coaching director I snapped his hand off," he said. "People say you can't be as passionate as someone who is not born in the country but I have massive passion for this job and a squad of players with strong Scottish connections.

"They have to be born in the country or have a parent or grand-parent who was born there and we have always prided ourselves on this team's heritage. The Australian players will be taken to Scotland to visit the places their mums, dads and grandparents come from. We're not going to make them millionaires but they will know who they are representing and why it matters."

To that end he is disappointed that they were not able to base themselves and play matches in this tournament in Scotland, but setting up HQ just across the border in Cumbria is, McCormack reckons, the next best thing, and he believes they will be well supported.

"Apparently 6000 tickets have been sold for the Tonga game already [Workington's Derwent Park has a 10,000 capacity] and I think West Cumbria will get behind us," he said.

"We've now got three Workington players in the squad, while I had three or four years coaching Whitehaven and my assistant Dave Rotherham had a spell at Workington too. So I know people there are very excited about seeing Tonga but I'd like to think the majority will be on our side and I think a fair few are planning to come down from Scotland too."

That opening match of the tournament against the men from the South Seas is expected to be decisive since the winners will be favourites to go on to a glamour quarter-final against, almost certainly, defending champions New Zealand.

The Tongan squad is packed with NRL players but the Scots have their own star quality to draw upon, not least in Brough, identified this season as Super League's "Man of Steel", the most prestigious individual award in the British game.

"Danny's had a fantastic season with Huddersfield Giants and he has played for us ever since my first game in charge of Scotland back in 2004," said McCormack. "He has represented Scotland in every tournament since and his presence is vitally important to us."

Brough was an inspirational figure the day Scotland claimed their only win at a World Cup finals tournament when, five years ago in Manly, they overcame a Fiji side that went on to reach the semi-finals.

"We beat a Wales team that contained Iestyn Harris and Lee Briers to get to that World Cup but that win over Fiji was probably the highest point and we were good value for it," said McCormack.

"I think Tonga will be very similar to them, a formidable team on paper packed with quality individuals so we will have to play especially well. However we set ourselves high standards and we've got a lot of quality in our team too, so we think we are capable of beating them."

The tournament starts on October 26 with that vital Scotland v Tonga match coming three days later.