Boarding a plane nothing new to well-travelled Toronto Wolfpack squad

TORONTO – Just hours after beating Widnes Vikings on Saturday afternoon, the Toronto Wolfpack boarded a plane for Manchester.

The Wolfpack wrap up the Super 8 Qualifiers next Friday at Leeds Rhinos.

It meant that the Toronto players had virtually no time to recover from the bumps and bruises of an 80-minute rugby league playoff game before taking off.

“The hard bit now is getting straight on an airplane,” said coach Paul Rowley. “If they’re not sore now, they will be by tomorrow morning.”

Asked about the sport science of flying right after a game, Rowley said dryly: “We thought about sailing but we wouldn’t get there for Friday.”

With games on both sides on the Atlantic, his team is used to flying.

In essence Toronto is home away from home for the Wolfpack. The players make their homes in England and the team has a training base there.

The team philosophy is to get the players in their home beds as soon as possible when returning to England. But even with the quick turnaround, Rowley said he would get just two practices in before the Friday game.