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This week a committee of 11 Super League chairmen, the league director and England’s Rugby Football League will decide whether or not to readmit Toronto Wolfpack into the competition, the side having withdrawn just a few weeks before the restart in August.
The contrast could not be any starker to this time last year. Not only was life very different pre-pandemic, but I attended the promotion play-off final between Toronto and Featherstone, one of the greatest sporting experiences of my lifetime.
Starting out with a bumpy overnight coach from Ottawa before heading straight to the Tottenham supporters bar for a disappointing 7am pint or five – combined with the lurgy that would make me a statistic in today’s germophobic world – the omens weren’t exactly promising.
But meeting up with old friends, making new ones, taking the walk from the plush bars of Liberty Village to the low-grade minimalist ‘stadium’ that makes Brookvale look posh soon changed the complexion of the day.
The game itself was exhilarating enough, with the atmosphere something unique in my 22 years on this earth. There was typical European-style chanting from home and away fans mixed with some North American razmataz, though nothing over the top or cringy, played out of the type of crappy but characterful, does-what-it-says-on-the-tin stadium, exceeding its capacity, all combined for some great memories.
Admittedly those memories stop abruptly somewhere in the early evening, but I’ve seen the galvanising effect of rugby league in Toronto and the potential for Toronto to impact rugby league. And the more I hear of those decision-makers arguing against their inclusion, the more I’m forced to re-enact those Toronto hydration techniques.
Don’t get me wrong, they need to be punished. Even with the extenuating circumstances of lockdowns, economic damage, lack of TV money or access to either British or Canadian furlough schemes along with jittery government restrictions, you can’t just pull out and not expect repercussions.
Even more worrying was their non-payment of wages to their players. Ricky Leutele and Sonny Bill Williams are in the NRL as much for money as out of altruism or boredom. Thankfully the players union has stepped in to ensure financial compensation, and the potential new owner is willing to backpay all lost wages.
(Photo by Matthew Lewis/Getty Images)
This isn’t even their first bout of financial controversy or their only brush with the authorities. They must be punished. This may involve a points deduction or financial penalties or even relegation to the second tier. But to all those who wish to chuck them out of the competition altogether, do me a lemon.
The debate about expansion has been run ad infinitum, but you only need to look to New Zealand to see the difference in mentality. To get the NRL back up and running the powers that be pushed heaven, earth and government policy on inbound arrivals to ensure the Warriors could make it to Australia. The federal government even gave Tamworth airport international status.
The attitude in the north has effectively been to give Toronto enough rope to hang themselves with.
But there is another point the Kiwi comparison brings, one missed by anti-expansionists who insist the game should not and could never develop in Canada. If it weren’t for the efforts and vision of an entrepreneurial rugby player by the name of Albert Baskerville, the game of 13 would never have spread to Aotearoa – or Australia for that matter. It has plenty of potential in Canada, I’ve seen it for myself. It just needs some support, not at the expense of the game in England, but complementary to it.
I am aware many cannot afford this away trip, and it is a position that I completely sympathise with. If someone told me I should fork out north of $1700 to watch Spurs play a Premier League game in New York in the greater interests of the game, I would tell them to [deleted for editorial sensitivity].
But rugby league does not have the luxury that football has of turning down opportunities. The entire sport was founded because of the need for cash for northern players and clubs, and it’s not every day you have millionaires willing to pump money into a sport that, in the worst-case scenario, could revert to semi-professionalism in this country.
I’m not a blinkered, soulless expansionist that thinks the game needs to cast off its northern roots. If more people would turn up for Castleford (population 40,000) than London (10 million), then frankly I don’t care. But turning down a team that can draw five-figure crowds in the second tier less than four years into its existence is not just cutting your nose to spite your face, it’s a full-blooded beheading.
But then again we English are not very well renowned for logic or consistency. The most glaring example? While we debate whether and where to readmit Toronto, another Canadian side, Ottawa Aces, have already been admitted into the third tier.
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