By Canadian Press

Wolfpack look to make Hull Kingston Rovers their first Super League victim

Aug 17, 2018 | 12:47 PM

TORONTO — The Toronto Wolfpack, no stranger to firsts, mark another milestone Saturday when they host Hull Kingston Rovers.

The venerable visitors, whose history dates back to 1882, are the first Super League side to visit Toronto. The second-year Wolfpack, looking to continue their rise up rugby league’s ranks, have never beaten a team from the top-flight.

Toronto, which topped the second-tier Betfred Championship with a 20-2-1 mark this season, suffered an embarrassing 66-10 defeat at the hand of the Super League Warrington Wolves in Ladbrokes Challenge Cup play in May. In 2017, Toronto lost 29-22 to Salford Red Devils in the same knockout competition.

Those two Super League losses aside, Toronto boasts a 41-3-2 career record.

After finishing 10th in the 12-team top-flight this season, Hull Kingston Rovers (8-14-1) are looking to retain their Super League status via the Super 8s Qualifiers, which pit the bottom four teams in the top division against the top four of the second-tier Betfred Championship in a round-robin competition.

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“We’re going to be challenged,” said Wolfpack coach Paul Rowley, a former England hooker.

While both Toronto and Hull KR are full-time squads, the Super League provides stiffer opposition week-in, week-out than the Betfred Championship where half of the teams are part-time outfits.

“They’re 100 per cent capable of being a top-six team (in the Super League) but they’re inconsistent,” Rowley said of HKR, by way of analysis. “And that’s why they are where they are.”

The top three sides in the Super 8 Qualifiers earn Super League status while No. 4 takes on No. 5 in what is dubbed the “Million Pound Game” to see who joins them. Toronto defeated fellow Championship side Halifax RLFC 14-0 to open the playoffs while HKR was beaten 28-10 by Salford.

The Wolfpack victory came at a cost, with injuries ruling out both of Toronto’s first-choice wingers this weekend. High-scoring Liam Kay is done for the season with an ankle injury while Mattie Russell will be just hours short of fulfilling the seven-day concussion protocol.

“Two massive losses. The metres that they make and their carries are going to be a phenomenal loss,” said Rowley. 

Nick Rawsthorne and Mason Caton-Brown, an elegant speedster making his Wolfpack debut after signing from Wakefield Trinity, will start on the wing.

“If you blink you’ll miss him,” Rowley said of Caton-Brown. “And Nick’s got strength. They both can score tries that are pretty, that take special players to score.”

Rowley lamented the short turnaround of the playoffs, given the transatlantic travel. Factoring in travel, Toronto has just five days to prepare for its final Super 8s Qualifier against Leeds on Sept 22.

More time is needed, given the rough-and-tumble game of rugby league.

“Five days is not adequate for car crashes,” said Rowley. “If you have a car crash on King Street (where Toronto’s Lamport Stadium is located) now, you’re not recovered in five days. And these boys are having several car crashes on Saturday.”

Hull KR will be without Australian bad boy Todd Carney (calf tear), Lee Jewitt (concussion) and Justin Carney (ankle, no relation to Todd) and Maurice Blair (suspension).

On the plus side for HKR, six-foot-six 275-pound Samoan prop Mose Masoe returns from suspension. Rowley calls him a “man-mountain.”

Hull Kingston Rovers are led by the iconic Tim Sheens, who previously coached Australia, New South Wales in the State of Origin series and four Premiership-winning teams in Australia’s NRL.

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Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press