Toronto seek beauty in the beast at Halifax
Coach Paul Rowley predicts a big future for sporting history’s first trans-Atlantic team
For Paul Rowley there is no doubt: rugby league is going to be huge in North America. “It’s the most poetic, violent, graceful, nasty sport all rolled into one,” he says. “That’s 100 per cent marketable, the perfect North American sport.
“It’s like team MMA with a ball. There’s blood, there’s beauty, there’s a beast.”
So convinced is he of the opportunity lurking in this previously unexplored territory, that the former Leigh coach is putting his career where his mouth is. He has signed up as coach of the newest team in the game: the Toronto Wolfpack. This afternoon his side play their first ever competitive match in the third round of the Ladbrokes Challenge Cup, when they turn up at Siddal, an amateur club based in Halifax. And if West Yorkshire seems a long way to come from Canada (approximately 3,500 miles) this is the point about the Wolfpack: in order to find some action, all of this fresh Canadian franchise’s matches will be against English opposition. The Wolfpack are going to be playing in the English league. Which makes them the first transAtlantic team in sporting history.
“When I sat down and thought of the dynamics of all this, it was so ridiculous I thought, why not,” says Brian Noble, the former Bradford, Wigan and Great Britain coach who is the new club’s technical director. “All the hurdles that were put in our way we have kicked over. We are the biggest thing to happen to rugby league since the Catalans got involved.”
It is some task Noble, Rowley and the rest of the staff have been set. They have not only created a full-time professional operation from scratch in less than a year, they have done so straddling the ocean. Yet ridiculous as it may sound, they have put together a squad rippling with big league experience. Like the Irish international captain and former Widnes hooker Bob Beswick, or Gary Wheeler, former St Helens and Warrington stand-off. Wheeler says he was sold on the idea within moments of talking to Rowley.
“It’s a great story, something brand new, really good for the game,” he says. “So far, it’s just been fantastic being part of something brand new. What a journey it’s going to be.”
Not that Wheeler has yet had to journey too far from his Warrington home. Rowley’s squad of Englishmen, Irishmen, Jamaicans, Americans and a couple of Canadians, have spent their pre-season training in Yorkshire. It was, Rowley says, simply too cold to winter in Canada. But the aim is eventually to be based full-time in Toronto, spreading the word, evangelising the game.
“The North American market is there for us to capitalise on,” he suggests. “The only way to do that is professional sport in collusion with world brands. A hundred per cent our ambition is to be in the Super League. Sponsors don’t want third level, they want the best. I tell you what, here’s my prediction: within three years we’ll be batting in the Super League.”
First, though, they must start at the bottom, entering the league pyramid in the third tier, scrumming down this season against Hemel, Gloucester and Oxford. They will be the only professional side among the enthusiastic amateurs of League One. And to do that while straddling the Atlantic has required no small investment from the club owner, Eric Perez, a Toronto entrepreneur who first mooted the idea of a Canadian side 10 years ago. “He’s smart enough to understand professional sport can be down to the bounce of the ball,” says Noble of his employer.
“He’s been patient so far, so he’s not put a time restriction on us. But myself and Paul Rowley are very ambitious. We know what we should do. We know what we need to do. And that’s get in the Super League. Fast.”
To do that they will need to overcome the kind of travel issues that do not normally impinge on a game whose geography is largely contained by the M62 corridor.
Although the Wolfpack make their debut in Yorkshire, as the summer progresses they will be playing home fixtures on the 4G artificial surface of the 10,000-seat Lamport Stadium in Toronto. But League One clubs like Workington and Whitehaven do not have the resources to fund awayday trans-Atlantic trips. Rugby league budgets do not embrace the jet set.
So one of the stipulations of Toronto being allowed to enter the league has been that every opponent will have their expenses met when they travel for matches.
A deal with the airline Air Transat will see every opponent flown over for nothing. “The Transat sponsorship is the most lucrative in rugby league history,” says Noble. “That gives you an idea of how serious we are. Plus we’ve sold nearly 5,000 season tickets for home matches already. We’ve jumped through hoops financially to get this thing off the ground. And though we haven’t fired a shot in anger, we’re all incredibly excited about what lies ahead.”
Not least the players relishing the chance to play on the other side of the Atlantic. After today’s Cup game, their league schedule means over the summer they will play three or four home fixtures together, before heading back to England for three or four successive away games. Which is new for all concerned. “I’ve never been to Canada before,” says Wheeler. “I have been to Florida. Not sure that counts, does it?”