I don’t understand why the RFL doesn’t register all players no matter the division to apply for a Canadian visa. They don’t expire for 5 years apparently or so a Toronto fan said on Twitter and surely once you have it, it’s better than not. For one, if you play Toronto you can get across and if you don’t it makes you more of an attractive buy if you have a visa and can play against them. There would be no short term faffing then either.

Brexit won't change anything. I'd expect the UK will model it's self like Norway & Switzerland.

Russia adjusted their entry rules for the World Cup, a valid match ticket can be used instead of a Visa.

It would be far easier to change the name of Leigh to Toronto its just a sham anyway, by my last visit to there web site they have only one canadian player in the Toronto squad and quite a lot of players are ex Leigh anyway.
No problem with visas here all you need is a morrisons royalty card.

Do Toronto have any form of representatives going into schools, like clubs do over here? Do they have any form of a community department? What about amateur clubs? What about properly growing the game instead of plopping them into established divisions and giving them special dispensations?

Correct: Quinn Ngwati, who just turned 19, and who is likely to play after TWP secure the Championship.

We're not hung up on where players come from. Local examples:

Toronto Blue Jays, established 41 years ago: Regular season roster of 25 players, two Canadian.
Toronto Raptors: Regular season roster, zero Canadians.
Toronto FC: Regular season roster of 29 players, nine Canadians of whom seven are "homegrown" from TFC's own academy. It's taken TFC 13 seasons to build these homegrown players.
Toronto Maple Leafs: can't be bothered to look, for the sake of argument let's say about half of them are Canadian.

Rugby is an emerging sport here - for Wolfpack to compete at a high level, we can't do it on homegrown players. Instead of bashing the Wolfpack for not having Canadians, why not view it as a great opportunity for English, Australian, NZ, Tongan and Samoan players to raise the game among Canadians?

Wolfpack are doing a lot of outreach to a wide range of audiences - corporate, sports, kids - as they are trying to build support, sponsorship and to get local recognition to build a fan base. There have been a few visits and coaching events with schools, but the structure of this season means they only overlap the school year for one month (June), as school ends here at the end of June.

Just a few examples

Eh?

Feel free to come on over here and have a go.



Wolfpack went from League 1 to Championship in one season and have a reasonable chance to reach Super League after two. That's a huge step up for skill level and talent. We were not surprised by player turnover going into the 2018 season (although we were disappointed to lose some fan favourites) and fans fully expect more changes if we reach SL in 2019 - it's necessary to be competitive.

Craig Hall will be here on Saturday, he'll get a warm welcome.

He's not in the 19 man squad though.

No he won't, not in the 19 to travel !

My perspective is Toronto get into super league and I travel 3400 miles for our away game, when I get there I find my team are playing against a lot of ex Leigh and ex Salford players with a couple of Aussies thrown in and only get to see 1 or 2 Canadians playing the game.
How long would that situation transform into home grown talent with one team in isolation..........20+ years maybe.

That is very disappointing. He was well liked here, and not just for his ability to kick the ball onto the trams on King Street.

It's a good question and depends what route Wolfpack take and how the sport in general evolves across the country.

Locally, it took Toronto FC six years. Club was founded in 2005 and set up the academy in 2008 under the leadership of that fine bloke Danny Dichio. TFC signed its first academy graduate in 2011 and now there are seven homegrown in the squad. It's a good model.

Hey, we like those ex-Leigh players. We call them "Wolfpack" now.

You don’t have the Salary Cap to match the wages. The whole point of expansion is to develop. If you don’t do that,you simply don’t expand.

That’s the failings within the current game which has been exploited and abused. The game survives on youth, without it you have no game. All the money in the world may buy you a squad but it won’t develop the sport.