T'Other Side: Toronto Wolfpack

T’Other Side: Toronto Wolpack

Toronto Wolfpack 2018 Shirts

LAST TIME OUT

Head Coach: Paul Rowley

Whether you like or not the style in which Paul Rowley’s teams play, the fact is that his record as a head coach is pretty remarkable. He was caretaker coach at Leigh for a month in 2008 and then was assistant coach under Neil Kelly and then Ian Millward. He took over as head coach at the beginning of 2012 with the club in big financial problems and remarkably guided them to second place in the Championship. He then took them on to be the most powerful club in the Championship before resigning just before the start of the 2016 season. In April that year he was appointed as the coach of Toronto Wolfpack who were to enter League One in 2017. In their first year they won promotion to the Championship winning all 15 league fixtures.

In his playing career Paul was a hooker and other than his time with home club, Leigh, he also played for Halifax and Huddersfield. He won 4 England caps.

  

Captain: Josh McCrone

Signed for this season, Josh McCrone is an Australian halfback who joined Toronto from Saint George Illawarra Dragons for whom he made 28 NRL appearances during 2016 and 2017. Prior to that he was at Canberra Raiders from 2009 to 2015 making 133 NRL appearances for them.

At the back

Liam Kay is one of a host of former Leigh players in the Toronto squad. He is a free scoring winger and topped Toronto’s try chart in 2017 with 27 touch-downs. He is Toronto’s top try scorer this season so far with 26. Although best known for his achievements at Leigh, he started his career with Wakefield in 2012 and had a loan spell with Doncaster. He played for Ireland in their 3 World Cup matches last year. Gareth O’Brien joined Toronto from Salford in March and has become their regular fullback. His career started at Warrington in 2011. He played for 4 different clubs in 2013 having loan spells with Castleford, Saint Helens and Swinton. In the next two years he continued to play occasionally for Warrington but also went on loan to Swinton (again) and North Wales and then signed for Salford in 2016. Back in 2010 he played for the England Academy. Nick Rawsthorne is a powerful centre who has joined Toronto this year from Hull FC, having started his career with Halifax. He has scored 15 tries so far this year. Another signing during this season, Chase Stanley joined Toronto in late March from Canterbury Bulldogs. He has played in the NRL for St George, Melbourne Storm as well as Canterbury and is a New Zealand international.

In the halves

The usual halfback pairing is Josh McCrone (see ‘captain’) and Ryan Brierley. Scottish international Ryan is another of the former Leigh players having started there in 2012. In 2016 he joined Huddersfield Giants and then linked up with Paul Rowley again in March 2017. He has a terrific burst of speed and is Toronto’s main goal kicker. In fact he is the only Toronto player to have taken goal-kicks so far this year. Should either McCrone or Brierley be unavailable, Toronto also have Aussie Blake Wallace who joined them last year from Queensland Cup side Central Queensland Capras.

At Hooker

Toronto have a strong combination of hookers. Bob Beswick is now in his 15th season having started his career with Wigan in 2004. After leaving Wigan he played for Widnes and then Halifax, before joining Leigh in 2012. He has played 22 games for Ireland. Less experienced but highly rated is Andy Ackers who had two seasons with Swinton and then a couple more with London Broncos before joining Toronto for this season.

In the pack

Jack Buchanan plays at prop or loose forward. He is an Australian and began his career in the NRL with Wests Tigers, coming to England to join Widnes in 2016. After two years there he was signed, this year, by Toronto. Darcy Lussick joined Toronto in April from Manly. He is a prop forward and has played 1”0 games in the NRL with Manly and Parramatta.  Second rower, Cory Paterson is another Australian (and former Leigh player). His career began in 2007 with Newcastle Knights and in 2011 he was signed by North Queensland Cowboys. In 2013 he joined Hull KR but returned to Australia to play for Wests Tigers the following year. In 2015 he joined Salford and then had 2 years at Leigh, joining Toronto this season. Ashton Sims was recruited from Warrington for this year. He is a Fijian international prop forward who has played more than 220 games in the NRL for Saint George, Brisbane and North Queensland.

The Fev connection

There are no former Toronto players currently in the Fev squad.

However, Toronto have had four players in their squad who have played for Rovers. They are Jack Bussey, Reni Maitua (now retired), Richard Whiting and Greg Worthington.