Fev and Toronto: 2019 Comparative Match Stats

Fev and Toronto: 
2019 Comparative 
Match Stats

T’Other Side: Toronto Wolfpack

T’Other Side: Toronto Wolfpack

2019 Matches

FIRST TEAM SQUAD

LAST TIME OUT

Head Coach: Brian McDermott

McDermott began his coaching career as assistant coach at Huddersfield Giants in 2003. He was then appointed as head coach at London Broncos (then called Harlequins RL) in 2006. In 2010 he moved to Leeds Rhinos and became the most successful coach in the Summer Era. He guided them to Super League titles in 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2017. They won the World Club Challenge in 2012 and the Challenge Cup in 2014 and 2015.

He took over from Paul Rowley as Toronto head coach this year.

As a player he was a prop forward and spent his entire career from 1993 to 2002 with Bradford Bulls. At representative level he appeared for Yorkshire, England and Great Britain.

Captain: Josh McCrone

Josh McCrone is an Australian halfback who joined Toronto in 2018 and was immediately appointed as team captain. Early this year he played three games at hooker.

Before joining Toronto he had made 161 NRL appearances for Canberra Raiders between 2009 and 2015 and for Saint George Illawarra Dragons in 2016 and 2017. From 2012 to 2014 he was picked for the New South Wales Country Origin team.

At the back

Ricky Leutele, centre, joined Toronto this year from Cronulla Sharks for whom he played 129 games in the NRL. He is a Samoan international.

Gareth O’Brien, fullback, made his début playing for Warrington Wolves against Keighley in the Challenge Cup in 2011. Warrington won 80-0 - some start! He remained a Warrington player until he moved to Salford in 2016 but he had many loan or dual reg appearances for other clubs in his time at Warrington: Widnes Vikings (2012 - loan), Swinton Lions (2013 and 2014 - dual reg), Castleford (2013 - loan) and North Wales (2015 - dual reg). He spent just over 3 years at Salford and moved to Toronto in March 2018. In 2010 he played for the England Academy.

Matty Russell, wing, is currently the top try scorer amongst Championship clubs with 20 so far. His career began with Wigan in 2011 and in 2012 he played on dual reg at Leigh and on loan at Hull FC. He was at Gold Coast Titans in 2013 but didn’t get to play in the NRL. On his return in 2014 he joined Warrington and then moved to Toronto in May 2018. He is one of the comparatively few Scottish intenationals to have been actually born in Scotland.

Chase Stanley, centre, joined Toronto from Canterbury Bulldogs in March 2018. In the NRL he played for Saint George Illawarra (2007-2009 and 2012-2013), Melbourne Storm (2010- 2011) and Canterbury Bulldogs (2014-2017). He played 129 NRL games scoring 37 tries, 30 goals and 208 points. He is a New Zealand international and has also played for the New Zealand Māori team.

In the halves

Joe Mellor was signed this season from Widnes Vikings. He started out with Wigan but made his professional début on loan at Harlequins RL in 2011. That year he also played for Widnes on dual reg. The following year he again played for Widnes, this time on loan. In 2013 he joined Widnes where he remained until making the move to Toronto.

Blake Wallace was signed by Toronto in 2017 from New South Wales team Illawarra Cutters. As well as playing at halfback he has also played one game at fullback this year.

At hooker

Andy Ackers joined Toronto for 2018. He began his career with Swinton in 2014 and joined London Broncos in 2016.

Bob Beswick is now in his 16th season and was one of the players in Toronto’s 2017 first season. He made his début with Wigan as a 19 year old in 2004. In 2006 he moved to Widnes. He joined Halifax in 2009 and then Leigh in 2012. He has played 22 games for Ireland including several as captain.

In the pack

Andrew Dixon, second row, made his professional début with Saint Helens in 2009. He joined Salford in 2013 and in 2014 played 1 game for Barrow on dual reg. In 2015 he moved to Leigh and then on to Toronto in 2017.

Darcy Lussick, prop, joined Toronto in April 2018 from Manly. He is a prop forward and played 108 games in the NRL with Manly and Parramatta. He is the older brother of Salford hooker Joey Lussick.

Adam Sidlow, prop, joined Toronto in 2017. He is closing in on 300 career appearances, if he plays it will be his 297th. His career began at Widnes in 2006 and in 2007 he played mostly for Workington on loan. From 2008 to 2012 he was a Salford player and from 2013 to 2016 he was at Bradford.

Jon Wilkin, loose forward, is the most high profile signing for this year and has been signed from Saint Helens. His career began with Hull KR in 2002 and in 2003 he joined Saint Helens remaining with them for 16 seasons and making 404 appearances. He has played 6 times for Great Britain and 10 times for England.

Dual Registration and loan signings

Toronto do not have a dual registration agreement.

Three players have come on loan to Toronto from Hull FC. Brad Fash  and Jack Logan played a few games in March and April. Hakim Miloudi has been at Toronto since April.

Nick Rawsthorne had a loan spell at York.

Olsi Krasniqi was out on loan with Bradford and then signed for London Broncos.

The Fev connection

In the current Toronto squad there are 2 players who have played for Fev. Anthony Mullally played on dual reg for Fev in 2016 and 2017and Greg Worthington who was a Fev player from 2011-2014. Greg has recently got back in the team having been injured for the first few months of the year.

The only player in this year’s Fev squad who has played for Toronto is Jack Bussey who was at Toronto in 2017 and 2018.

Toulouse v Fev:
Teams and Scorers
Play Offs Semi-Final 2

fevnut's musings #36: Happy Awaydays, Family Team and Names of Play-Off Matches

fevnut's musings

Happy awaydays!

We’ve been watching Fev for so many years now but it is hard to remember two successive awaydays that brought as much happiness as we have experienced at Leigh and York in the past fortnight! Two wonderful performances from a team that is now hugely greater than the parts. 

At last we are putting out a settled team who have rapidly learnt to play together, how to bring out the best in each other.

We have to confess that we have been perplexed by some of the wing signings this year that were down to the injury of Tom Briscoe at Leeds and the subsequent loss of availability of brother Luke. We brought in Jack Johnson, and to be honest, we hadn’t been convinced that he added anything and regretted that Jack Render (who we see as a really good future Fev prospect was getting so little game time. And then we signed Jake Spedding who we haven’t seen at all!

There are thrilling tries that come from great movement and passing between the team and then there are ones that rest upon the skill and pace of an individual. And last Saturday Jack Johnson scored one of the most thrilling tries of the season. A 90 metre effort from an opposition kick and Jack saw the spaces the moment he caught the ball and the result was tremendous. What brought us the greatest thrill was to see a speedy winger taking on an opponent on the outside and rounding him brilliantly. So rare nowadays when wingers almost always think that the way to the tryline is by cutting inside.

Fev - the family team

Once upon a time there was a bond in Fev teams that resulted from the fact that the huge majority were local lads with a passionate commitment to their home team. We’ve never forgotten the day when Eddie Waring, commentating on a Challenge Cup final, referred to Mick Smith being the ‘foreigner’ in the Fev team because he came from Doncaster!! Sadly times have changed and it is very unlikely that we will ever see a Rovers team again with that number of players who are from Fev.

But what we seem to have achieved instead is to create a bond between the players and the fans which makes playing for Fev something very special.

We saw wonderful evidence of that at York when, despite giving everything they had to give in the match as York players, Tim Spears and Andy Ellis wanted to come over and spend time with many of their friends in the Fev crowd! We loved that!

The Names of Play-Off Matches

Last week we wrote about the stupid names given to the play-off matches. Semi-Finals that aren’t semi-finals and finals that aren’t finals. Well, no sooner had we published our piece than the names were changed.

Okay, we are not claiming that it was a result of our article. The new names are slightly better but still not very good for explaining to RL ‘outsiders’ what is going on.

The ‘Qualifying Final’ has become the ‘Qualifier, the ‘Eliminator Final’ is now called ‘Eliminator 1’.

On the second week, what was ‘Semi-Final 1’ has become ‘Eliminator 2’ and ‘Semi-Final 2’ is now called ‘Semi-Final 1’.

The third week (our match in Toulouse) is now ‘Semi-Final 2’ instead of ‘Preliminary Final’

Are you clear? It’s not much better is it?

Milestones

Congratulations to Luke Cooper on his 100th professional game when he played at York and it was, of course, his 100th for Fev. Luke is a classic example of what we meant about players who are not from Fev becoming a part of the family.

There is another possible Milestone in Toulouse with our current French International, Dane Chisholm, needing 4 goals to achieve 100 for Fev.

Fev v Toulouse:19 Man Squads

Fev v Toulouse: 19 Man Squads 

19 Man Squads

Fev and Toulouse have  now both announced their 19 man squads for Sunday. 

Fev are without Brad Day, Josh Walters is doubtful and Cameron King still has to pass his concussion test.

For Toulouse they are missing regular scrum-half Stan Robin.

We have placed the Fev players into positions with guess work largely based on the line-up from last week.

Sunday's Referee: Toulouse v Fev

Sunday's Referee

Is this what you call referee royalty?! This year he has done the World Club Challenge, Challenge Cup Semi-Final and Final!!

He was the ref when we beat Toulouse in France in 2009!

Championship Talk: Everything on the line

CHAMPIONSHIP TALK

fevnut's blog is absolutely delighted to have received permission to bring you a regular column from Gareth Walker.

Gareth is a top rugby league journalist who has one very exceptional distinction. He chooses to write about matters pertaining to the Championship and League One.

Although this blog is devoted to Featherstone Rovers it is always good to read opinions about matters relevant to us, but not specifically about us. We hope you enjoy reading Gareth's column each week.

Everything on the line

AN entire season’s work comes down to 80 minutes of rugby for four Betfred Championship and League One clubs on Sunday.

       

The competitions’ Preliminary Finals see Toulouse Olympique host Featherstone Rovers and Newcastle Thunder take on Doncaster, with the winners of both progressing to their respective Grand Finals.      

       

Toronto and Oldham can both watch on safe in the knowledge that their place is already assured after impressive victories last weekend.

       

For the other four, this is do-or-die rugby league.

       

Featherstone have already been playing that for two weeks now, and their impressive away wins at Leigh and York will ensure they are not taken lightly by favourites Toulouse.

       

Ryan Carr’s side have built some real momentum over the last fortnight, despite missing key man Cameron King due to the concussion protocol.

       

In his absence, Leeds youngster Callum McClelland has excelled at stand-off and Connor Jones has caught the eye at hooker, with the likes of forwards James Harrison and Brad Day providing a cutting edge in the pack.

       

They also have the benefit of an extra day’s rest on their opponents, and unusually for a team playing in France, will have done less travel this week, with Sylvain Houles’ men returning from their match in Toronto.

       

But winning in Toulouse is rarely easy for any opposing team, especially with brilliant attacking trio Mark Kheirallah, Johnathon Ford and Stan Robin pulling the strings.

       

It should be a cracking contest.

       

In League One, there is a repeat of the Newcastle-Doncaster game that we saw just two weeks ago in the play-offs.

       

Then, the Dons prevailed 20-6 with an accomplished performance led by scrum-half Matty Beharrell and with Rangi Chase alongside him.

       

With Kyle Kesik a shrewd hooker at this level Richard Horne’s side have the ability to trouble any side, and they also have significant experience in the pack, not least in Danny Washbrook.

       

Thunder can also boast players with plenty of knowledge about what it takes to succeed at this level in Misi Taulapapa, Quentin Lalulu-Togagae and Keal Carlile, who all have key roles to play.

       

Others to watch out for include Newcastle’s young guns Nick Newman and Lewis Young, and the Dons’ explosive PNG duo Jason Tali and Watson Boas.

       

Don’t expect there to be much between the sides as they bid to earn a shot at promotion against the waiting Roughyeds.

Championship 2019: Leading Scorers

2019 Championship 
Top Scorers