Title: Toronto Wolfpack return home for pair of pivotal games, seeking Super League promotion
Date: September 13, 2018
Original Source: The Athletic
Synopsis: In my latest for The Athletic Toronto, I wrote about the ascendant Toronto Wolfpack’s quest for promotion to Super League, which could hinge on two huge upcoming home games.
Sitting just north of Lake Ontario in Toronto’s Liberty Village, Lamport Stadium stands as the home of Rugby League’s only transatlantic team, the Toronto Wolfpack. For the rest of Rugby League, it may as well have been another world away through the team’s first two years, during which the Wolfpack have scarcely done anything but dominate in the environs they refer to as their Den. The 9,600-person venue played home to a dominant inaugural season in 2017 that saw the Wolfpack earn a promotion from League 1 to Championship, and it wasn’t until late in the team’s second season that they suffered their first loss on home soil, a relatively low-stakes game to end the regular season where several key figures sat with the Championship table locked up.
Now, more than ever, the Wolfpack need their home field to deliver an advantage — Saturday’s 12:30 p.m. home game against Toulouse. It’s the fifth of seven games in “The Qualifiers,” an eight-team postseason tournament that will determine what level the Wolfpack play in 2019.
“It’s awesome, mate. Love playing here, love playing in front of the crowd here. Everyone gets behind us and we’ve had a bit of success here,” says veteran second row Cory Patterson. “Hopefully we can maintain it these next two big games.”
Blake Murphy Sports Writing 