They bury them in the snow

The sport has had a professional presence in Canada for less that two years. Two. Amd we're expecting a team full of competitive Canadian talent within that time?

It's hardly like many of of our 'heartlands' are producing masses of talent, and they've had much longer to get it right. Of the last England World Cup squad, half of the players came from just three club academies. And the last players to play for England from the "heartland" of Cumbria were Ade Gardner and Rob Purdham.

Perhaps it's better to look at actually growing the talent pool, rather than complaining about more clubs tapping the same well? Or is that too much like hard work?

Melbourne have produced how many Victorians in 20 or so years? Any new side needs time & patience. It wasn’t so long ago people said the same about London, and now their academy products are littered throughout the leagues.

18 months in, what are people expecting?

]
It was our troops that gave you ice hockey you should be eternally grateful for that

Your exaggerated boasting does you no favours in your, the Canadians ‘save our butts’, they were part of an allied effort that defeated the enemy. The main contributors to this victory were the British, Americans and Russians along with Commonwealth countries and various Europeans. As an example, Canada provided 13% of troops in the Normandy Landings, thanks very much but hardly worth a ‘saving our butts ‘accolade.

Now can we stick to Rugby League.

13%of the troops but one of the 5 beaches (uhhh....for you that would be 20%; punchiing above their weight again). Ever hear of the Battle of Britain?, many of the pilots in those planes were Canadian....very disrespectful. Ever hear of the Battle of the Atlantic....that was the Canadian Navy fighting those subs so your people could eat....very disrespectful. Without us you would have been finished in that war and you know it....we fed ya, we clothed ya, we defended ya....we saved ya and you have forgotten it. Alot of us died to help you folks out.

Ever hear of the term over there "Lest We Not Forget'
-that means more than one day of the year my friend,that means we will remember them every day, 365 of them, every year! I will always remember them and not try to sluff them off on a web page. SHAME!

Exactly. Turn the focus on Leigh's squad and youth production line for a minute, who have a 138-year head start on Toronto;

They have;
3 Samoans (Mata-utia, Hansen, Vaivai)
3 Frenchmen (Larroyer, Bergal, Dezaria)
3 Aussies (Mortimer, Hutchison, Lovett)
1 Kiwi (Thompson)

Then they have players picked up from SL surplus in; Craig Hall, Ben Crooks, Rhys Evans, Ben Reynolds, Liam Hood, Jordan Thompson, Larne Patrick, Jack Owens, Greg Richards, Jack Blagborough.

Other players from fellow Championship/L1 clubs; Jamie Acton, Nathan Mason

Loanees; Gregson from Wigan, Bailey from Saints

The only player in their senior squad they can lay claim to is Micky Higham, who's nearly 38.



Toronto of course have a bona-fide Canadian in their squad already, Ngawati.

I'll let you all form your own conclusions.

The lad that's on loan at London Skolars?

That's the one. 18/19 year old centre/2nd row, came through the trials held before the 2017 season.

But with him out on loan at London it just puts Toronto in the same boat as Leigh?

18 from the UK
9 from the NRL/Australia
The full coaching staff and Director of rugby are from the UK
Owned by an Aussie

Leaving only one Canadian left who is the founder of the club?

Ahh, it not a genuine question then. He's on a seasons loan, with the intention I imagine, that he'll return to TWP along with Burroughs.

It does pretty much leave them in the same boat as Leigh yes, and that's exactly the point I'm making. Leigh fans (and others) are quick to criticise the lack of Canadians in their squad, whilst producing very little themselves. The difference is 2 years vs 140 years.

I suppose the question is, what are you and others expecting after 2 years in the way of Canadians? Is it realistic to expect them to have 5/6 Canadians in their squad after 2 years, or a full Canadian coaching setup? Of course not, because it takes time.

I used Melbourne as an example earlier in the thread. A huge city very similar to Toronto, except they're in a country where RL is already huge (albeit not in Melbourne itself). In 20+ years, they've produced only a handful of Victorians that have made the grade. It's extremely tough, and to produce more than the odd player, you need the local grassroots infrastructure in place over a number of years. Patience is key here, and it seems not a lot of UK fans are willing to give them the time for whatever reason.

Don't think I'm arguing by the way I actually agree with some of your points, one of my problems is with how they've bought there way into the Championship and whats looking like the middle 8's. I appreciate they were never going to have a full squad of Canadians who compete like the current squad is but there's no point in them being a Canadian outfit as they're not, they're a team overseas players. In all debates I've seen Catalans and Toulouse are both disregarded, how popular is RL in France - more popular than it is in Toronto for sure but not by much I'd say! -

Catalans - 19 French players in the side
Toulouse - 16 French players in the side

I'm sure I heard Gorden Tallis say the other day it took Queensland 70 years to beat New South Wales in one form or another.

Of course they're a side of overseas players, what else could they possibly be at this moment in time after 2 years? The point is expansion, some will agree with expansion, some wont, that's fine), and getting a foothold in North America, which will hopefully pay dividends in the future.

You've already without realising it made the point for me. They've "bought their way into the Championship" - so what you're saying is that they're bringing money into the game? Money into a game desperately in need of more money? That's great then isn't it?

Also, what do you think other clubs do to enable them to compete & improve - they invest! Why are you calling out Toronto for spending money, other clubs reply on their chairman's money too, in fact most clubs are reliant upon their chairman's money to survive. What's the difference?


I shouldn't need to point this out to you, but Rugby League has had a strong foothold in France since the 1930's. They had a fairly decent infrastructure (a semi-pro league) already when Catalans joined SL in 2006, and we've seen improvements in player numbers ever since. Using France as an example isn't a fair comparison.