Toronto Wolfpack bash Barrow in top-of-the-table rugby league showdown

TORONTO — The Toronto Wolfpack improved to 8-0-0 Saturday, reeling off 70 unanswered points to bash the previously unbeaten Barrow Raiders 70-2 in a top-of-the-table rugby league showdown short on drama.

Barrow (7-1-0) fielded a depleted side with four players unable to make the trip to Canada due to visa issues and another injured. Unlike the fully professional Toronto team, the Raiders are a semi-pro side.

Still it was an impressive performance by the fledgling Wolfpack, who were missing four players themselves through injury and suspension, before an announced crowd of 7,144 at Lamport Stadium.

Barrow went ahead 2-0 on a fifth-minute penalty kick, but Toronto scored seven tries — four in the last nine minutes of the half — to lead 40-2 at the end of a first half that saw the Wolfpack make three goal-line stands to stave off the visitors.

Toronto continued with its stingy defence and added 30 points — though five more converted tries — in the second half.

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“It was an all-round complete performance,” said a satisfied Toronto coach Paul Rowley, who danced with his players in the locker-room as they sang their victory song “Wolfpack’s on Fire.”

Quentin Laulu-Togaga’e scored three tries and Ryan Brierley had two for Toronto. Blake Wallace, Ryan Bailey, Andrew Dixon, Gary Wheeler, Greg Worthington, Sean Penkywicz and Shaun Pick added singles. Wolfpack captain Craig Hall kicked 11 conversions.

Lewis Charnock kicked a penalty for Barrow, who despite the lopsided score managed some decent defence.

Barrow’s last competitive defeat was a 32-22 loss in the promotion playoff final at Toulouse on Oct. 1.

Barrow coach Paul Crarey paid tribute to the Wolfpack’s quality. 

“It’s just a shame for the game that we couldn’t have brought our best 17, because we’d have probably have hung in the game a little bit longer,” said Crarey, an independent roofing contractor when not coaching. “We might not have won the contest but the first 20 minutes we were good and then they started picking us to pieces a little bit.”

The first-year Wolfpack, rugby’s first transatlantic team, have started life in the Kingstone Press League 1 — the third tier of English rugby league. Their goal is to win promotion to the second-tier Championship and then the elite Super League.

Because of the visa issues, the visitors had to dress the injured James Duerden to make up the matchday 17. They also fielded two 19-year-old academy players — Ryan Johnston and Matty White.

Barrow was also forced to play Chris Fleming, a winger, at back row and gave a debut to former British marine Tom Loxam at centre. Jarrad Stack started despite back spasms,

Wolfpack props Fuifui Moimoi, the Tongan-born former New Zealand international, and Bailey, a former Great Britain and England international, served as battering teams in their Toronto debut.

The two big men missed the Wolfpack home opener May 6 — a lopsided 62-12 win over Oxford RLFC before an announced crowd of 6,281 — due to their own visa issues.

The final try of the first half saw the refrigerator-sized Moimoi barrel towards Barrow’s Ryan Fieldhouse, who clearly saw his life flash by him as he backed away. The six-foot 230-pound Moimoi was eventually tackled, but the ball kept moving and Toronto scored on the play.

The Wolfpack have now won 10 of 11 matches, with the lone blemish a 29-22 loss to Super League’s Salford in the fifth round of the Ladbrokes Challenge Cup.

The Raiders had won 13 straight prior to losing 72-10 to Super League’s Leeds Rhinos last Sunday in the sixth round of cup play.

Toronto was without the injured Jack Bussey and suspended Jake Emmitt and Liam Kay.

Crarey said prior to flying to Canada that semi-pro clubs like his — located in Barrow-in-Furness in northwest England — need more help from the Rugby Football League in handling the paperwork. 

Barrow, whose journey to Canada started at 5 a.m. Thursday, has not been helped by the schedule either. The visit to Toronto falls between the high-profile Leeds match and the May 27 League 1 Cup final against the North Wales Crusaders.

The Wolfpack have done their share of travelling too, downing the Thunder 40-22 in Newcastle, England, on May 12 after the May 6 home opener.

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Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press