MATTY Russell is hoping to form a regular partnership with Peta Hiku, whom he says is “a dream” to play outside of.

The duo played together on the right edge for the first time in Thursday’s 22-6 victory over Widnes, with Hiku putting Russell away for one of his two tries as well as grabbing one himself.

Such has been the impact of injuries among other things on the Wire squad, the New Zealand international is Russell’s sixth right-edge partner of 2017 so far.

As well as Hiku, Russell has played outside Rhys Evans, Matty Blythe, Toby King, Jack Hughes and Stefan Ratchford this campaign.

Given the promising early signs for their link-up, Russell now hopes to develop it in the Middle 8s.

“It’s a dream really for a winger to play outside Peta. It’s been very different to the previous combinations I’ve had,” he said.

“He’s been our best player in the past three games, he’s killing it!

“I think I’ve played outside four or five different centres this season, it would be good to get a partnership going with him.

“It was good for the first game and it will get better once we get to know what the other likes to do.”

The Scotland international was returning from a six-game injury absence against the Vikings and marked his return in style.

Russell crossed the whitewash once in either half, taking his try tally for the season to eight from his 17 appearances in all competitions.

Russell says he was ready to play in the previous week’s victory at Wigan and admits it felt good to be back on the pitch again.

“I was blowing at times but I know things will improve from here,” he said.

“It’s been six or seven weeks since I last played so it was good to get a run-out and help get my fitness back up to where it needs to be.

“I was fit to play against Wigan, but Hiku and Ben Pomeroy had been going really well.

“It’s obviously disappointing for Ben to get that injury but I was fit and ready to come in. For me, it was good timing.”

Barring any further injury, Russell looks set to play a key role as The Wire fight to preserve their Super League status in the Middle 8s, starting with another game against the Vikings on August 4.

The 24-year-old says Wolves will go into the survival battle in a much better frame of mind than they had this time last month.

“The Middle 8s are not where we wanted to be playing in the coming weeks, but that’s rugby at times. We just have to perform, secure our spot and go from there,” he said.

“We’ve been building well in the past three weeks and have come up with some good results. It’s a step in the right direction for us.

“It’s not the best scenario but it’s better than where we were four or five weeks ago when we were losing games.

“We can only concentrate on our next game. We’ll go to Widnes with our heads held high and full of confidence.”

The confidence Russell talks about has arisen from a run of three consecutive victories to end Super League’s regular rounds.

The last of those came despite a scrappy first-half performance against the Vikings on Thursday and the flyer revealed what was said at the interval to inspire an improved showing after the break.

“We were just talking about being a bit loose in contact,” he said.

“They were rolling us down the field and the play-the-ball was a bit too fast for our liking in that first half.

“Once we got to grips with that, we could start doing the same to them and put in a much-improved performance in the second half.”