Toronto Wolfpack

The Rugby Football League first received an application from a Canadian consortium based in Toronto, led by the Chairman of the national governing body Canada Rugby League Eric Perez, in 2014 to compete in the United Kingdom's third tier of professional rugby league.[14] Perez was denied permission to join the first-tier Super League directly, and instead attempted to build the club up to the point where it can be promoted.[15][16] A press conference was held on 27 April 2016 at which details on the franchise, which began to play in 2017, were revealed.[17][18] The team will be the first professional rugby league team to be based in Canada.[18] A group of 10 businessmen, consisting of mostly Canadians and an Australian mining millionaire David Argyle, own the club,[19][20] having paid around $500,000 to be granted admission to the rugby league.[21] A condition for the team to join the British rugby league system was that they would be responsible for covering travel and accommodation expenses incurred for all visiting teams outside of the first division Super League.[21]

It was suggested that it was an attractive market as Canada has the largest amount of rugby league followers outside of Australia, France, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.[22][23] The club plans to play in blocks of four home matches, four away matches, and cover all expenses for visiting teams throughout the season.[24]

The Wolfpack held tryouts in five cities across North America starting 24 September; those were: Philadelphia, Tampa, Kingston, Vancouver, and Toronto itself. From these tryouts 18 athletes were selected to take part in a tour in England, culminating in a victorious game against an amateur club, the Brighouse Rangers. Three players won professional contracts with the Wolfpack Rugby League Team following the tour, with another round of tryouts to be held in Toronto in the following few months for the unsuccessful trialists.[25]

The Toronto Wolfpack Rugby League Team owns rights to all broadcasts of their matches. In Canada, games are broadcast on CBC Live and on Game TV, in the USA games are broadcast on Eleven Sports, and in the UK and Ireland Premier Sports broadcasts through the Sky Network.

The Toronto Wolfpack taking the field against the London Broncos in the Challenge Cup at the Trailfinders Sports Ground in Ealing in March 2017

On 22 January 2017, the Wolfpack played their first professional game, a pre-season friendly against Hull F.C. at the KCOM Stadium. The final score was 26–20 in favour of Hull.[26] The club played its first competitive match on February 25, 2017, resulting in a 14–6 victory in the third round of the Challenge Cup against the amateur NCL champions: Siddal.[27]

On 4 March, Toronto played its first League 1 match, away at London Skolars. They won the match 76–0.[28] Their first home match was played on May 6, where they defeated Oxford in front of 6,281 fans at Lamport Stadium.[29]

The Wolfpack would go on to have a successful campaign, winning all fifteen of their regular season matches and five out of seven playoff games. The Wolfpack finished the season with 41 points from 22 games and points difference of +921.

Promotion to the Championship, and the Kingston Press League 1 Title, was secured on 9 September 2017 with the Wolfpack defeating Barrow Raiders 26–2 in front of 7,972 spectators. They closed with a win against Doncaster in front of a record attendance of 8,456.

Liam Kay with the Wolfpack during a match in February 2018

The following season saw continued success by the Wolfpack; winning the league leaders shield in the championship competition. Following a round 4 defeat to London Broncos they put together an 18-game winning streak from March 2018 [30] which was eventually broken with a home defeat to Featherstone Rovers in late July. They performed creditably in the Super 8s with five wins from seven games, defeating Super League sides Widnes Vikings and Leeds Rhinos. However, they fell short of automatic promotion on points difference and London Broncos beat the Wolfpack 4–2 at Lamport Stadium in the Million Pound Game, condemning the Wolfpack to another season in the Championship.

In June 2019, a group of 19 "older" Rugby League players and 2 supporters made up from around the world, toured to Toronto in Canada to introduce "Masters Rugby League" to the Canadians. Masters is a modified version of the game of Rugby League and players must be over 35 years of age to play. With no upper age limit, older and players of any ability are all welcome. The Masters format was first played in New Zealand in 1992. By 2004 it was introduced to Australia and to the UK in 2008, France in ca: 2011 (and again in 2016), Ireland was next in early 2019).

Masters players from traditional Rugby League areas such as Lancashire, Cumbria and Yorkshire joined with players from the less traditional Rugby League areas, such as London, South East and the North East of England. With two players Joining from the Southern Hemisphere, (New Zealand and Australia) the tour party was a truly International mix of players from ages 36 to 77, touring under the name “South London Silverbacks Masters”. So with support from The Toronto WolfPack, and some very hardworking and dedicated Rugby League volunteers in Canada, who managed to form two teams as opposition (Toronto Wolfpack Masters and the Ontario Greybeards Masters), the tour went ahead.

Two Masters games were played at the Lamport Stadium in Toronto and the tourists were also guests at Barrie High School, spending the day helping Toronto Wolfpack staff with a Rugby League skills day. This tour has “Sown the seeds of Masters RL” in Canada and thanks go to all who volunteered, helped and sponsored the three teams involved. Hopefully Rugby League, Masters and all the other variants of Rugby League will be introduced and/or continue to grow in popularity in Toronto, Canada and North America.

On October 5, 2019, the Wolfpack were promoted to Super League for the first time in club history after their 24–6 victory over Featherstone Rovers in the 2019 Million Pound Game.

In November 2019, the Wolfpack made international headlines when they signed dual-code international Sonny Bill Williams on a two-year deal. The signing came in the wake of Williams' third appearance in a Rugby World Cup and saw him return to Rugby League, the sport where his career began.

In July 2020, Toronto Wolfpack withdrew from the 2020 Super League due to financial difficulties and new logistics needed for international travel caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.[31] A subsequent bid for readmission was rejected on the 2nd November 2020 and resulted in the team's removal from the league & their ensuing announcement that they would not operate in 2021.

• Most tries in a match:

• 5:

Liam Kay v. York City Knights (1 July 2017)

• Most goals in a match:

• 13:

Craig Hall v. Doncaster (9 April 2017)

• Most points in a match:

• 38:

Craig Hall v. Hemel Stags (15 July 2017)

• Most drop goals in a season:

• 2 (2 players):

Ryan Brierley and Gareth O'Brien (2018 Championship)

• Most goals in a season:

• 170:

Craig Hall (2017 League 1)

• Most tries in a season:

• 27 (2 players):

Liam Kay (2017 League 1) and Matty Russell (2019 Championship)

• Most points in a season:

• 436:

Craig Hall (2017 League 1)

• Biggest win:

82–6 v. Doncaster (April 9, 2017)

• Biggest loss:

66-10 v. Warrington Wolves (May 13, 2018)

• Highest home attendance:

9,974 v. Featherstone Rovers (at Lamport Stadium, 5 October 2019)