Focus On ... Toronto Away

Focus On ... Toronto Away

From Visa issues to lost baggage, beer tokens to recovery days, last weekend saw almost everything but a close game.  I am, of course, referring to Toronto away.

This week I wanted to give the English rugby league fans and squads an idea of what they could, and would, expect when visiting rugby league's newest club.

Toronto, affectionately referred to as the 'Queen City', 'The Big Smoke', 'Hollywood North' or even 'Hogtown', and the birthplace of rapper/musician Drake, is a metropolis like no other that rugby fans will experience when travelling away to support their team.

This small city by size (but largest in Canada by population, and in the top ten within North America) may have its own unique architecture, a host of already long-standing and successful sports teams, and distinctly Canadian food chains, but at the same time you almost feel like you could be anywhere in the world.  However, match day was nothing like I've ever experienced before!

My home-town team, Barrow Raiders, kindly agreed that I could join them on this trip and this is my experience of the weekend.

The travelling...

Thankfully, as I live on the outskirts of Leigh I didn’t have to set off from Barrow at 6:15 am, but was able to get the train and meet the guys at Manchester Airport around 8:30am.  Check-in had already begun by then but for some of the players it seems the problems had already started.

Some regular first-teamers had to be left at home as they were unable to gain a working visa in time to fly, and listening to the various conversations this had been a worry of the team for some time.  Last minute name changes and visa applications had all seemed to have gone through apart from one player who unfortunately had to be left behind at the airport.

So, including this player, a total of six players who would have probably started the game had to be left at home and the lads already felt they were on the back foot before they’d even got on the plane.

Spirits seemed to rise though as they shrugged that disappointment off and were in fine sprits as they began to relax and enjoy the outward flight across the Atlantic (believe it or not, no alcohol was consumed by the squad during of this flight.)

Once we’d landed in Canada we were greeted by Federico, who showed us around the campus and facilities, and Romaine, who I had a lengthy chat about the history and future of Toronto Wolfpack and what they aim to achieve from being in the English league system.

Impact on visiting/semi-pro players...

You probably won’t be surprised when I say that it does have a fairly large effect.  Having travelled for almost 18 hours via planes, trains and automobiles, even I was feeling it by the time we got to the accommodation.

So, for lads that have been working all week as well as trying to fit in the odd training/gym session or two I would be a much wealthier man if I had a dollar for every time I heard the words too far for semi-pro players to travel for a game.

It made the guys more frustrated when the Canadian press had printed that Barrow were a full-time, professional side, were relegated from the Championship last season, and were more concerned about visas and accommodation rather than the game as one newspaper headline had it.

Regardless of what accommodation the players had to stay in – it was literally a halls of residence within a university campus, which was fine for me as I’m a small bloke but some of the taller lads clearly struggled with the small single beds – but I must say the training facilities were fantastic.  Training on a full size, 3-G sports field with access to a huge gym and Olympic size swimming pool suited the lads perfectly.  The coach even asked me to put on record that the squad had been treated fantastically since arrival despite the issues of just getting here.

The match day experience...

I cannot praise the organisers enough for what was a uniquely wonderful match off the pitch.  Following on from their very welcoming attitude on arrival in the country two days earlier the guys behind the scenes did everything they could to make to the squad as comfortable as possible.

On a personal note I managed to blag a press band which entitled me access to the special VIP/press area, which was basically a couple of beer tents at one end of the pitch, and was treated to a special Toronto Wolfpack beer FOR FREE ... who could say no??

I also had a great time meeting up and chatting with Dario and Chris who contacted me through twitter.  They run the page for “Wolfcast Toronto”, @wolfcastto, and aim to provide fun and informative podcasts about the Wolfpack and are definitely worth a follow if you’re interested about rugby league in North America.  They impressed me with their interest in our great game and their eagerness to learn about the rules and the history of the sport.

Whilst trying to make myself useful by being a liaison between the team coach and Premier Sports who were requesting pre-match interviews I got talking to Simon Davies, the League Express correspondent who was writing the match report for them and the North West Evening Mail back in Barrow.  As he didn’t know the Barrow team that well he kindly invited me up to the press box during the match to aid him whilst he was making notes for his reports.  It also helped me as well as I was keeping the Raiders’ Twitter page updated with the match action.  He also gave me a photo to put on my blog which I have attached here.

Back to the match day entertainment, I don’t think they’ve ever heard of a tannoy system in Canada and when the DJ booth kicked in before the game I almost had a heart attack as I was stood right next to it!  I don’t know what I thought it was when I spotted it but it certainly wasn’t a pair of turntables.

It was also amusing to see streams of supporters still coming into the ground after ten minutes or so of the game had already gone.  I learned that this was a particular down-side of Canadian rugby league fans at the moment as they needed to learn that the game is only 80 minutes and doesn’t last a few hours, or all day, like most other American sports.

After the game I tried to be cheeky and worm my way across the pitch to reach the Barrow players as they went back into their dressing room claiming I had come with them and part of the squad.  It wasn’t entirely untrue but I wasn’t going to argue with their security when they said no!

So I settled for walking around the ground to the beer tents where the supporters had situated themselves.  Low and behold, true to their word, the Raiders fans well and truly “having a party”.   As you do I got chatting to one bloke who claimed his name was Mr Fortnum and a distant relative of the founders of the Fortnum and Masons.  I had to raise an eyebrow but when he claimed he was supplying all the booze for the Wolfpack’s home games and gave me a handful of free beer tokens I was quite happy to agree with him.

The players eventually came out of the changing rooms, a bit downhearted I must admit, but they soon perked up when the Canadian supporters couldn’t leave them alone, wanting photos and conversations, so anyone in a Barrow shirt must have felt like superstars.

The long-term future of the game in North America...

This one is probably a hard question to gauge at the moment as they have only hosted a couple of matches on home soil but the Canadian fans certainly have an appetite for a sport that has all the atmosphere, speed and aggression of their national sport, ice hockey.

Their ultimate aim is to establish a fully professional league within North America.  The USA has had an amateur rugby league competition for some time along its Atlantic coast but Toronto want to push those boundaries further by helping to start a full-time franchise elsewhere, possibly in Florida, before moving the sport nationwide.  So don’t be surprised with we see a team from Miami, Orlando or Tampa Bay rising up sometime soon.

Whether that means they are using their experience of being in the English system to gather ideas to take back across the pond and eventually leave us and join an American league remains to be seen, but I don’t think we’ll see them disappear for some time yet.

The final judgement...

For me personally I would say it was a great experience.  As a supporter who got the chance to travel to Canada to watch their side take on Toronto I would say to anyone else, absolutely go!  This was a once in a lifetime opportunity that even my wife was keen for me not to miss.  The people I met over there were hugely passionate and wanted to know everything about the history of the Barrow Raiders club and the game of rugby league.

On the flip side, ice hockey is clearly a passion in Canada and they pride themselves on being the birthplace of the NHL with their team, the Maple Leafs, who were one of the founding members of the league.  They also enjoy their basketball through the Raptors and they are no doubt still living off the success of their baseball and soccer teams from last couple of seasons, Blue Jays and Toronto FC, and would like to add a fifth franchise into the mix in the form of the Wolfpack.

They certainly have the population for it but I would advise them to walk before they run.  They plan to be a force in Super League within five years and, as much as I like them as a club, I would hate to see another expansion side go to the wall in the way Paris Saint-Germain and the original Crusaders RL sides did.

However, I can completely understand the frustrations of players at this level of having to take three or four days off work to travel all that way for what is inevitably going to be a heavy defeat.  After the game I really felt sorry for the lads as I know how much it meant to them to go out there, under much adversity, and try and give a decent account of themselves in front of a fledgling Canadian crowd that is still learning the game.

In hindsight, a lot of lessons can be learned from this trip both on and off the field, tactically and administratively, and I think any clubs travelling to Toronto in the future would be wise to try and learn from the experiences of both Barrow and Oxford and prepare as fully as possible.

I would like to finish by thanking the Barrow Raiders for agreeing that I could travel with their squad.  When I found out they were allowing me to go I offered to keep their social media platforms up to date and provide some form of media presence whilst in Canada which they agreed to.  The coaching staff and players were fantastic in welcoming me into their group and I felt perfectly comfortable around the squad at training, on match day and during their down-time.

I would also like it to be known that anything I have written in this article is purely my own opinion and not a dig at a particular individual, club or organisation.  If any of it came across that way then please be assured it was not meant to and I apologise for that and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my thoughts.

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