Wolfpack flush with opportunity
Goal of reaching sport’s top tier comes down to one huge game Cory Patterson and the Wolfpack shrugged off Matthew Fleming’s Broncos in their last two encounters.
Toronto Wolfpack winger Mason Caton-Brown posted a selfie to his Instagram story feed showing off the seat he’d been assigned for the team’s seven-hour flight from England to Toronto — next to the cabin’s bathroom, with one user exiting and another set to enter.
Caton-Brown’s photo featured him looking unimpressed, with the sarcastic caption: “Best seat on the plane for 7 hours.”
But the picture also played up a theme for this past week, which culminates Sunday afternoon with the Wolfpack hosting the London Broncos in a onegame playoff that will promote the winner to rugby’s Super League. The Wolfpack may have made a splashy entrance into the Englandbased Rugby Football League last season, but the outfit’s first transatlantic franchise isn’t receiving any special treatment.
Not from chief sponsor Air Transat, which emblazoned its name on Wolfpack jerseys but seated Caton-Brown next to the restroom.
Not from the league, which required Toronto to start in the third division last season and earn promotions at every step.
And certainly not from the Broncos, who, like Toronto, hail from a cosmopolitan metropolis that represents a big
shift from the gritty northern cities where rugby league thrives and most Super League teams are based.
For the league, Sunday’s game means a chance to bring their best product to new and lucrative markets. And for London native Caton-Brown, graduating to Super League means defeating the franchise where he started his professional rugby league career.
“I’ve still got friends that play at the Broncos,” said CatonBrown, who played 20 games over two seasons with the club. “It’ll be interesting, but I’m just playing my best rugby and fo- cusing on me and my team.”
The deciding game — which kicks off at 2 p.m. at Lamport Stadium, to fill a premium broadcast time slot in the U.K. — is also Wolfpack hooker Bob Beswick’s 400th professional match.
The team plans to honour him afterward, but the 33-year-old from Wigan, England says a chance to make the Super League supersedes the individual milestone.
Beswick started his pro career in the Super League with his hometown team, the Wigan Warriors. But by 2016 his career had stagnated and he wasn’t sure he’d keep playing. Then the Wolfpack called, and two seasons later he’s one win away from another shot at the top tier.
“It’s why we play rugby league, to get to the end of the season and have a crack at winning something,” Beswick said. “This is a little bit special because hopefully we can create some history … (We’ve) taken a long road.”
Sunday also marks the fourth meeting this season between Toronto and London. When they met in February, London won 47-16, but the Wolfpack took the next two matches by a combined score of 66-34.
Still, head coach Paul Rowley says his team’s preparation for the Million Pound Game — so named because the winner will join the Super League’s revenue-sharing pool — has been fraught with challenges.
Nine days ago, the Wolfpack upset the Leeds Rhinos, last year’s Super League champions, in the final game of an eight-team round-robin playoff tournament.
Rowley says the game felt like a cup final and emotions peaked when, late in the second half, Gareth O’Brien kicked a drop goal to give Toronto a 17-16 win.
From there, the Wolfpack had to wait two days to learn whether they had qualified for promotion or would need to play one more game.
When Hull-Kingston pounded the Widnes Vikings to earn the final automatic qualifying spot, the Wolfpack returned to Toronto to face yet another high-stakes playoff match.
Rowley says his team arrived with energy at a low ebb on Monday, but has notice speed and intensity increasing with every practice this past week. By Sunday morning, he says, his players will be ready — energized by the chance to control their destiny.
“When a player gets across that line, nerves won’t get to them,” Rowley said. “They’ll get out there and enjoy themselves while the rest of us bite our fingernails.”