BIRD TO FLY VIRGIN NEST
TEAM SWITCH Chaos as Toronto owner admits the Wolfpack may not be able to complete the new season
SAM BIRD will lead Jaguar’s racing revolution in Formula E after deciding to leave Envision Virgin yesterday.
The Brit (below), who is the only man to win a race in every season of Formula E’s history, has been with
Virgin since the brand’s inception in 2014.
Bird, 33, will see out the final six races of this season at Virgin before moving to form one of Formula E’s most fearsome duos with current Jag star Mitch Evans.
“This team has become more like a family to me,” said Bird. “There will be a tear in my eye come that final race.”
SUPER LEAGUE’S restart has been thrown into chaos as Toronto Wolfpack could struggle to fulfil the season.
The Canadian club’s owner David Argyle confirmed visa issues could rule them out.
The Wolfpack’s seven overseas players, including superstar Sonny Bill Williams, are all on visas that limit them to six months a year in the UK – which has now expired in each case because of the coronavirus pandemic.
They have experienced visa difficulties throughout their three-and-a half-year existence, with Australian prop Darcy Lussick last year refused re-entry to the country.
The Wolfpack has been in regular dialogue with the Rugby Football League and Super League over the matter, after being told by the Home Office they cannot deal directly with them.
But with no progress having been made, Argyle says the issue has reached “crunch time”.
Super League are due to announce this year’s reworked fixture list this week. Argyle (below) said: “We have laid this out to Super League and the RFL today and it’s an issue we can’t keep kicking down the road.
“If it isn’t resolved now then I don’t see any way we can participate in the rest of this season.
“It’s been suggested to us that we could loan young players from other clubs, but we’re not here to make up the numbers and we never have been.
“We didn’t hire Brian McDermott as coach to do that. We also feel that it would be dangerous for us to fill our squad with other club’s juniors, especially at a time when players might only have four days’ rest between matches.”
McDermott’s small squad had been stretched to its limits before the coronavirus shutdown after a host of injuries, and with no reserve team or academy, losing seven overseas players would leave them short of even a basic match-day 17.
Argyle added: “Player welfare is our highest priority and the anxiety that our players have every time they come back into the country needs to stop.
“We joined this competition in the belief we would have the full support of the RFL – and ultimately success in resolving this visa issue. This has been going on for three-anda-half years and this Covid situation has exacerbated it.
“I’m not blaming anybody – I understand the bureaucratic position. But we’ve come to a crunch point where it needs to be resolved.”