Rugby league’s Toronto Wolfpack are the first transatlantic sports team

By T.A.W.

IF YOU had pondered ten years ago which sport might be the first to introduce a transatlantic team—that is, one based in North America but playing in a European competition, or the other way around—rugby league would not have been the obvious choice. The National Football League (NFL) has long hoped to establish a franchise in London, and has been holding competitive fixtures in Britain since 2007. That year was also the first in which the National Hockey League (NHL) organised regular-season matches in Europe, a dalliance it continued until 2011. The National Basketball Association (NBA) has staged competitive matches in London in each of the last five years. “Game 39”, a proposal made in 2008 by the English Premier League to play a round of overseas fixtures each year, was shot down by governing bodies and fans. But English rugby union arrived on the East Coast last year, with a regular-season fixture contested in New York.

Yet all of these high-rolling competitions were gazumped on March 4th, when the Toronto Wolfpack (pictured, in black) kicked off their first ever regular-season fixture in front of 1,542 spectators. Their hosts were London Skolars, and the tournament was League 1, the third tier of English rugby league—making the Wolfpack the world’s first truly transatlantic sports club. They will maraud throughout Britain during the next four months, returning occasionally to Ontario to host sides from Oxford, York and Gloucestershire, among others.

That rugby league has reached this milestone first is surprising, since it has always been a regional game. It was founded as such in 1895, when working-class clubs in the north of England broke away from the Rugby Football Union (RFU), which had banned them from paying their players. The northern variant, “rugby league”, was more fluid than the amateur “rugby union” played by public schoolboys in the south: it features two fewer players and prohibited defenders from competing for the ball after a tackle. While rugby union has gone global, only Australia and England have a professional tournament for rugby league. All but one side in the Super League, England’s top tier, are northern; all but three in Australia’s National Rugby League (NRL) are from New South Wales or Queensland. Yet these leagues have accommodated outsiders. New Zealand, better known for its rugby union prowess, has had a team in the NRL for nearly two decades. The Catalan Dragons, a French club, are enjoying their 12th consecutive season in the Super League.

Will the Canadian experiment be successful? The Wolfpack certainly look like they have plenty of bite: they ravaged the London Skolars 76-0. Brian Noble, a former coach of the (now defunct) British national team, has been appointed as Toronto’s director of rugby. He will be responsible for nurturing local talent, and trying to make the team less reliant on imported players: just six of the current squad hail from North America. An airline sponsor, Air Transat, will cover their opponents’ travelling costs. And though the 5,000km excursions from Toronto to York or Doncaster will be the first to regularly traverse the Atlantic Ocean, such lengthy trips are far from unheard of. Teams in America often traipse thousands of kilometres from coast to coast. European football tournaments include teams from as far afield as Portugal and Kazakhstan. Super Rugby, the premier rugby union competition for clubs in the southern hemisphere, features sides from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina and Japan.

Officials from the Rugby Football League (RFL) the governing body in England, are optimistic that the arrival of the Wolfpack will help to grow the sport in North America. The Lamport Stadium, which will host Toronto’s home fixtures, regularly attracts crowds of 7,000 for international games, an encouraging figure given that the governing body for the sport in Canada was only formed in 2010. England’s Super League runs during the NFL’s off-season, making it a good fit for bored American fans. College footballers who fail to gain professional contracts will have skills that could prove handy on the rugby pitch.

Many of these potential spectators and players will gravitate towards rugby union, which is gaining considerable support. Both the Canadian and American sides have regularly played top-class international opponents in recent seasons. The continent could win the right to host rugby union’s 2027 World Cup, and launched its first professional competition last year. Yet rugby league is fighting back: the Rugby League International Federation (RLIF) has already announced that its 2025 World Cup will be held in America and Canada. The existence of transatlantic clubs could make it more appealing than the 15-a-side version, and the RFL is already considering Montreal and Philadelphia as sites of future teams. The battle between the two codes of rugby, once limited to Victorian England, seems destined for a new frontier. Organisers of other sports will be watching closely.