Uncertain travel plans a pain for Wolfpack
Road trips that require one-way travel of some 5,500 kilometres are hard enough at the best of times. Pulling them off on short notice is even more demanding.
Which may explain Toronto Wolfpack coach Paul Rowley’s somewhat grumpy mood as he awaits his transatlantic rugby league team’s post-season schedule.
“Imagine ringing your family every day and you can’t tell them you’re coming home,” said Rowley, a former England hooker. “It has an unnecessary effect on state of mind, that’s what I’ll say. Unnecessary because any format should be written on a tablet or stone five years ago when the event first started. But it’s not, so we’re here. We’re dealing with it.”
While the Wolfpack call Toronto home, it is essentially their home away from home. The largely English team has a training centre in Manchester and most of the squad live nearby when over there. In Toronto, they live in residence-style digs with family joining them when possible.
The Wolfpack, who have already clinched the second-tier Betfred Championship title, wrap up the regular season Saturday against the fifth-place Featherstone Rovers (15-7-0). Toronto (20-1-1) looks to extend its league winning streak to 19 games while defending its unbeaten history at Lamport Stadium.
The so-called Super 8 Qualifiers feature the bottom four teams in the elite Super League and the top four in the Betfred Championship. They play each other once, with the top three guaranteed of a place in the Super League and the fourth- and fifth-place teams facing off to see who joins them in what has become known as the Million Pound Game.
Toronto knows it will play four games at home and three away in the Qualifiers. The Wolfpack will host Hull KR and Widnes and travel to Leeds and Salford. But Toronto does not yet know the dates, which is a headache given the distance involved.
In a way, the Wolfpack are part of the problem. The travel is just as complicated for teams coming over here. Each of the eight teams have their wish list for the schedule with the Rugby Football League, the sport’s governing body, left to sort it out.