Professional rugby appears well on its way to TD Place

Plans to launch a professional rugby club in Ottawa are moving ahead, with an official announcement and possibly the team’s first coach expected early in 2020.

Eric Perez, one of the founders of the highly successful Toronto Wolfpack, is leading a group that plans to have an Ottawa team on the field in 2021 that would play in the English-based Rugby Football League.

The Wolfpack became a transatlantic team in 2017, joining the RFL, and have already leaped ahead to become a Super League team. Earlier this week, the Toronto team made a splash by signing All Blacks star Sonny Bill Williams to a two-year contract worth a reported $10 million.

Perez’s Canadian group bought the third-tier Hemel Stags team with hopes of moving it to Ottawa.

“I can tell you we are getting professional rugby in Ottawa, 2021 is still the goal,” Perez said Friday. “We’ve already been approved for the move, we’re just crossing t’s and dotting i’s on our deal to move it — both with OSEG (Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group) and the RFL. Actually, it’s more with the RFL over in England, we’ve pretty much got the deal done with OSEG.”

So, why Ottawa?

“I just think people in Ottawa would like gladiatorial sports, where people are putting their body on the line. It’s action-packed and every once in a while a fight breaks out. It’s perfectly suited for the psyche of the city, which is a no-BS kind of town.”

Then there’s the potential of matches against the Toronto team, whose popularity has skyrocketed.

“We’ll have a pretty strong rivalry (with Toronto), hopefully we’ll play a series every year even though we’re not in the same division,” Perez said. “It’s possible Sonny Bill Williams could be playing a match (in Ottawa) in 2021.

“We’re looking to get promoted very quickly. We definitely want to move up to the second division. We’ll be looking to bring in the type of talent to make that happen. We’ll also be looking at good local talent. At Carleton and U of O, there are some very talented football players we feel could move into the space of a rugby league. It’s a very similar sport, there are a lot of transferable skills. We’re looking to have a bit of a Canadian flavour to the team, being in the nation’s capital. We’re going to put together an exciting product and treat Ottawa to some cool international sports.”

There’s the potential of a local tryout camp, with elite prospects being taken to England to play for a season in the fourth division before Ottawa begins play in 2021. Postmedia News