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Wolfpack fall short in their bid to reach rugby Super League,
Minutes into the Toronto Wolfpack’s season-ending 4-2 loss to the London Broncos, the home team sent a high kick deep into London’s end, where the Broncos’ Alex Walker set up to field it.
A millisecond after Walker made the catch, Toronto’s Gareth O’Brien steamrolled him. When the big hit popped the ball loose, a Toronto player scooped it up and trotted in for a try that would have given the Wolfpack an early lead in the heavily hyped Million Pound Game.
The play could also have served as a metaphor for Toronto’s first two seasons in the U.K.-based Rugby Football League — the Wolfpack moving fast, hitting hard and cashing in quickly on their relentless success. A win on Sunday would have landed Toronto in the Super League just two seasons after entering third division.
But a video review showed a Toronto player was offside on the play, forcing officials to disallow the try.
It was a crucial moment in a game that featured only six total points, and provided an even more fitting parallel to the trajectory of the Wolfpack franchise. After two seasons of mostly smooth and linear progress, Sunday’s loss provided a pitfall and a plateau.
Instead of immediate promotion, the Wolfpack spend another season in the second division.
“It’s one of those games that was infinitely frustrating,” said Wolfpack captain Josh McCrone.
“There’s a lot of disappointed boys in (the locker room) now who put a lot of time and effort into a whole season of football.”
Sunday’s match at Lamport Stadium attracted sports fan and media attention in England, where broadcaster Sky Sports pushed for a 2 p.m. Eastern kickoff to fit a premium television time slot. And the pairing represented a bestcase scenario for a league eager to increase its reach beyond the mid-sized cities in northern England currently composing the bulk of Super League’s roster.
While the RFL had previously placed franchises in France and Spain, Toronto represented their first transatlantic expansion and a chance to see how well their sport would play to North American audiences. The Broncos, meanwhile, came from London, where most fans prefer rugby union — the 15player version of the sport. Broncos standout Jarrod Sammut, who scored the winning team’s points with a pair of penalty kicks, said the victory will resonate beyond London’s small and dedicated group of rugby league followers.
“Rugby league isn’t massive down south, but for the community we do have, we’ve just grown in numbers week by week,” he said. “Mate, I think there’s going to be a massive party already there (in London). When we get back we’re just going to continue it.”
While Sammut, an Australian-born veteran of more than 230 pro games, said he had never seen a match with such high stakes and so few points, he added that his team welcomed the paucity of offence. London’s game plan involved neutralizing Toronto’s high-octane wingers and contesting the match in midfield.
As the low-scoring match wore on and the Broncos worked their strategy, the disallowed Toronto try proved crucial. Rugby league’s rules reward success. The scoring team receives the ensuing kickoff and another opportunity to tally more points. Toronto missed out on both.
The rule forcing defenders to begin each play 10 metres away from the ball also punishes teams for losing possession, wearing them down with the extra running required to stay onside. Over time, fatigue builds up and teams break down.
“It wasn’t the best-looking game. I don’t think I’ve ever coached a game where no tries have been scored,” said Wolfpack head coach Paul Rowley. “We didn’t put our best foot forward. It became a midfield tussle … which probably suited them more than us.”
The match attracted a franchise-record 9,266 spectators to Lamport Stadium, a figure the team sees as real progress.
“The crowd’s right into the game and they’re understanding rugby league, and that’s a really proud moment,” said Scott Lidbury, who oversees the Wolfpack’s commercial operations.
“The reality of sport, as we all know living in Toronto, is that there’s a lot of disappointment in sport.”
But the loss will cost the Wolfpack.
A Super League berth would have added Toronto to the league’s revenue-sharing programs and filled its 2019 home schedule with opponents wealthy enough to cover their own travel.
Staying in the second division means no shared league revenue while still paying visiting teams’ travel costs.