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Rugby League coming to Toronto


PacificCoastRL

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The sport of rugby league will be coming to Toronto. Not a rugby league. But a rugby league team. Confused yet - to those that don't know, there are two forms of rugby. Rugby union, which is the game most Canadians have knowledge of, and rugby league, which is a high profile sport in Australia (think Jarryd Hayne now of the San Francisco 49ers), and is played at the pro level in England, which is where the Toronto team will be playing. I don't have a lot of details yet, but the team is called the Toronto Wolfpack. In my opinion rugby league is a far better game than rugby union. It is faster, more emphasis is put on try (touchdown) scoring than union, and I believe you have to be a better athlete to play league. And for those of you who come to this site for logos, they have what I think is a great logo. I don't know how to put one on the site yet, but look around on the web and you'll find it.

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League does seem more exciting from what I've watched of the two.

 

Though, if Rugby really wants to make a prescense in North America, Rugby 7s would probably be the way to do it. Figure out a scheduling/scoring system that can make for several games played between two teams in a few hours (2-3 like other sports), such as maybe a volleyball/tennis 'matches won' setup to determine who wins the game (Best of 3, 5, etc).

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Rugby Union - the "posher" version in England. The game is built around sustained possession and territoy as players can be tackled an unlimited amount of times. Quite often kicking a drop goal / penalty (like a Field Goal) is favoured over going for a try. Scrums and mauls happen often and the play can be quite slow and played through the biggest guys on the teams (but not always).

 

Rugby League - very popular in the north of England and/or working class backgrounds in the UK. Attacking teams can only be tackled 6 times before having to give the ball back to the other team and they quite often kick it away after 5 tackles (like Punting on 4th down). Because of this, do or die situations are created and this can lead to some explosive plays on offense. Scrums don't tend to happen and once making the tackle, the defenders have to roll away and let the attacking players start the next phase by rolling the ball backwards to another player behind them.

 

There are some obvious logistical problems with this new team but they are supposedly going to foot the bill for when the teams travel to Canada and they will also be based in Yorkshire for several weeks and play 4 or 5 away games at a time to limit their travel. This will only be a success for as long as the money comes in from the Toronto side of things but the Catalan Dragons show that teams not on British soil can exist and bring through their own local talent.

UBI FIDES IBI LUX ET ROBUR

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29 minutes ago, Viola73 said:

Union v. League isn't the issue...what I am confused with is that the Toronto team will be playing in an English (England) league? Is that right? 

 

There have already been a couple of French teams in Super League - current club Catalans Dragons and defunct side Paris Saint-Germain. Even more outlandishly, there was a London-based side as well.

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4 hours ago, Jaffa said:

 

There have already been a couple of French teams in Super League - current club Catalans Dragons and defunct side Paris Saint-Germain. Even more outlandishly, there was a London-based side as well.

Which is understandable, seeing as how they are at least in the same hemisphere. Plus, there is already in soccer, the Champions League and Europa League has made the idea of an international league possible. But this is something like the NFL wanting to put a team in London. I know it had been mentioned in the past for Toronto to be in the rugby league but it was more of a glorified rumor, or dream, for this to happen. I am more stunned than shocked that this seems like the real deal. 

I hope this works and I hope Toronto takes the cup. Goooooooo WOLFPACK!

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Give me 3 seasons to decide.  This feels a bit Frank D'Angelo'i$h... spending money where no one else is & proclaiming themselves geniuses.

Jet lag could be chaos on the players, even if they are playing 4 over the pond/4 back.

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@2001mark

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