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Men's Rugby League Wolfpack plan to play home games on the road next season

Toronto are set to play their home fixtures in blocks of four in 2019 and have plans to take several to other cities in Britain in the early part in the season.

Due to a combination of weather conditions and renovation work at the Lamport Stadium, the Wolfpack played all their away games in the first half of the 2018 Championship season before finishing the year with a run of fixtures in Toronto.

The 2019 fixtures have yet to be published, but, because of the harshness of the Canadian winter, director of rugby Brian Noble says the club will spend the first two-and-a-half months of the campaign “on the road.”

“It’s going to be the back end of April before we get back over there, so we’ll probably have a couple of event games on the road,” Noble said.

“We’re looking to do quite a few games in Britain from the first week in February.

“It’s a bit of misconception that the big block at the end of last year in Canada was an advantage. In many respects, it was quite a disadvantage to us.

“We’re worked really well with the RFL and told them we’ll do smaller blocks.

“Probably blocks of four are the way forward. I’m confident some good decisions have been made.”

Wealthy chair David Argyle spoke of his plans to take games to European cities such as Copenhagen and Dublin had Toronto gained promotion to Super League and, despite losing out to London Broncos in the Million Pound Game, Noble says the club still harbour pioneering ambitions, albeit on a more practical level in the Championship.

“It’s certainly not off the agenda, in reality to the different cities in the world,” Noble said. “Our owner genuinely believes in the global aspect of our game, so we’re still looking at that kind of venture.

“Wherever we can be involved in an event, we’ll go for that, we’ll partner with people if we can and we’ll promote the game wherever we can. There will be a couple of announcements on that when the fixtures come out.”

Noble says the club would be open to playing a home fixture as part of a double-header with a Super League club.

Toronto head coach Brian McDermott, who oversaw the start of pre-season training in Manchester on Tuesday after succeeding Paul Rowley, says he has been impressed by the ambition of Argyle.

“I met him a few times before getting the job,” McDermott said, “I had a good chat with him about 10 days ago for a few hours and I got a really good feel for what he wants.

“He’s got some big plans and he doesn’t carry too much baggage around with him.

“He also appreciates that it’s one step at a time, let’s get in Super League first.”

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