Hull FC Pip Toronto Wolfpack in Pre-Season Friendly With the start of the 2017 season looming on the horizon we got the chance to take a look at Rugby League's newest sides, Toronto Wolfpack. The side who will enter Championship One in a few weeks time were in Hull to take on the Challenge Cup holders as they continued their preparation for Superleague. It was a chance for Paul Rowley to test his new charges against a Hull side tipped to be pushing for major honours again in 2017, with Lee Radford likely to try a few interchanges if things were going their way. READ MORE ON THIS STORY...

Hull FC Pip Toronto Wolfpack in Pre-Season Friendly With the start of the 2017 season looming on the horizon we got the chance to take a look at Rugby League's newest sides, Toronto Wolfpack. The side who will enter Championship One in a few weeks time were in Hull to take on the Challenge Cup holders as they continued their preparation for Superleague. It was a chance for Paul Rowley to test his new charges against a Hull side tipped to be pushing for major honours again in 2017, with Lee Radford likely to try a few interchanges if things were going their way. READ MORE ON THIS STORY...

There were no other friendlies played today......

Damn right Dat Cuz !

*gettin' down wit da kidz innit*

Did leigh play

Fearful & bitter Leigh fans all over a Toronto thread like flies on sh!*.

Gets a good-sized chunk of coverage in today's Times. Toronto game, that is, not Leigh's.

Well, Mr grim reaper

The whole Toronto forum is littered with your post,so don't tell porkies.



There is 2 post in total from Leythers and one of them is to welcome them to the RL forum.

sorry, I just don't get the interest in a bunch of mercenaries, the game is dying on it's feet. I am all for expansion of the game but how does this work when we are looking to get bums on seats at all levels, once the novelty as worn off what will happen? Will this be another RFL project to be propped up to prove a point.

I don't have the answer to the problem, however a fail to see how a Canadian team long term will work, sorry honest opinion.

From the interview I saw from Perez he believes a Toronto team that is even just mildly successful will put thousands of 'bums on seats'. I just don't see where the risk to our game? If after a few years they fade away then what have 'we' (the sport) lost really? Nothing that I can think of.

Now what if they reach SL in five years? At worst we get a holiday out of it!

In theory they only need to grow their fanbase to 3k and they have already surpassed Salford/London...etc!

I really don't get the negativity.

They are funding the venture themselves, so no risk to other clubs or the RFL, it's taking RL to new places, getting new people from different countries playing the game, and there seems to be genuine interest.

There are plenty of hurdles and it might not work, but if it doesn't then it doesn't really matter. If it's successful on the other hand then it's huge for the sport and the international game.

the negativity is from those that feel threatened imo

and if redgunner feels they are just a bunch of mercenaries, he should know, salford have had plenty! lol

Firstly, this isn't an 'RFL project'.

What is it that makes you feel that it can't work? In terms of getting 'bums on seats', this falls squarely at the respective clubs in my opinion and has little to do with Toronto. A North American team in League One has absolutely no bearing on why Salford or Huddersfield can't generate respectable crowds, or why Bradford can't pay their tax bills on time.

The game needs to spread to new markets. I've got no idea whether Toronto is the sort of market that is the future of this sport, but I think you'll forgive me for thinking that Toronto offers much more to progress this sport than most of Cumbria or the West Riding.

I listen to Perez and, quite frankly, he is what this game has missed for years. He is probably the only CEO / Chairman who knows how to get his story across, and is actually speaking about this sport with an infectious enthusiasm (Koukash is probably the exception, although his approach is much more combative). I'm sick to death of listening to the "woe is us, this isn't fair, we can't do this, it's the RFL's fault" that comes out of most club chairmen - if we had 12 Super League clubs run by 12 Perez's, the sport would be miles ahead of where it currently is.

The bums on seats argument always makes me laugh. Away fans is hardly a huge source of income. At the KCOM we are lucky if we get 1000 away fans twice in a season. It is especially funny when supporters of teams like Salford say it. There were probably as many Canadians there yesterday as there were Salford fans the last time we played them.

Fully agree. The biggest risk to the sport is doing nothing at all.

That goes for the RFL, all SL clubs, all Championship clubs and all League one clubs.

All Rugby League clubs should be looking to improve on & off the field year on year!

Leyther here, Toronto is great for the sport as we must expand or die. Hope we get a second Canada team soon and a couple in the states also. The morals of the club were certainly questionable last year imo but that may just be personal from the coach but that's history now.
Global spread should create opportunities to grow incomes in the sport

Yes as you say, my club as a lot of experience with mercenaries so can speak from experience

As others have said, this is a 'no risk' scenario for the RFL.

There's a great buzz about Toronto currently, they're making the most of their moment and creating plenty of interest. We're only weeks away from the start of the season and I'm seeing or hearing very little of any note from either the RFl, Super League (as a brand) or any of the other clubs (some are better than others). However, I'm hearing plenty about Toronto - granted a lot of it is because they're new and have lots to talk about, but they're certainly making more noise than any other club out there.

They seem to have all their ducks in order financially, and if it stacks up financially over a number of years, then it could be huge for the game - if not, nobody really loses anything and it will have been a good ride. I don't see how anybody can find negatives with this whole venture!

It's funny that so many people moan about how few fans Catalan bring over but, although there may be a few hundred away supporters when Catalan play in Perpignan, they will get fewer away fans at their ground than any other SL club.
Therefore they are in a "worse" position regarding poor away support.

The big issue with Toronto is, can they meke a real go of it and if they are successful, should it be the catalyst to starting a full blown competition in North America or, long term, are we looking to have 2/3/4 clubs from 2/ 3/ 4 nations making up an international Super League and having a massively stronger Championship competition ?

Of course, The RFL haven't got a flaming clue, they just hope for some kind of miracle and aren't bothered where it comes from.
They should grow a pair and tell us what they are doing with the sport.

Leigh and Salford are full of mercenaries, why shouldn't Toronto?

Regards

King James

This probably shows that Toronto are more media savvy than The RFL and any of the other pro clubs in SL.

It's a pity the Wigan friendly has been cancelled, it would have certainly been a great crowd at Eastlands after the Hull result. Just over 11k Facebook likes with about 2k in the last week alone. They need to keep the momentum going!

Very true, Salford have scrapped their academy and then complain there are no decent players available to sign.

(INVEST IN YOUTH DEVELOPMENT MARWAN!)

However the quote below shows Marwan wants to turn super league into an NRL division 2 full of Aussies who didn't make it.


"At Salford we have money to spend on the cap but the quality is not out there. We don't have enough quality to go around 12 Super League teams so we need to relax the number of quota places available.

"There are some fantastic young kids from Australia and New Zealand that we could bring in who will not be very expensive but will add value to the competition. That's the way I see the competition getting better." Marwan Koukash

Salford like Leigh would be 4/5th pick behind Wigan,Saints and Wire for any quality juniors , so let's say Marwan ' invests in youth development ' next year , he might produce a couple of decent players by 2025

Regardless it should be mandatory for any top flight club to run an academy. Wakey have to compete with Cas, Leeds, Fev and Hudds, we're not backed by a sugar daddy and there's nothing to be said about our stadium. Yet we still can run an Academy. Salford and Leigh should be ashamed

Running an academy is relatively easy , producing players is the hard bit , how many have Wakey produced in the last 5 years ?